OPINION
New Hampshire's Family Caregivers Deserve Real Support
Right now, 281,000 New Hampshire residents are quietly holding our healthcare system together—and we're barely giving them anything in return.
They are daughters rearranging work schedules for a parent's appointment. Spouses awake at 3 a.m. helping a partner with mobility. Sons spending their own money on gas, groceries, and grab bars so a mother can stay in her home. They are family caregivers, and they represent nearly a quarter of our adult population.
For families with older adults on Medicare, this burden is especially heavy. While Medicare is essential health coverage for hospital care, physician visits, and some skilled services, it’s families that fill in the gaps when other needs arise.
As a nurse practitioner and a daughter who cared for her own aging parents, I've seen this reality up close—both in the clinic and at home. Caregivers manage medications, coordinate services, navigate the system, complete tons of paperwork, and absorb enormous financial and emotional costs. Most of it is unpaid. Most of it goes unseen.
The numbers are striking; according to the AARP 2026 report, New Hampshire caregivers provide 200 million of hours of unpaid care annually - valued at $4.4 billion. We are asking everything of these families while offering very little in exchange.
That has to change. Here's where we start:
Financial relief. A state reimbursement program for transportation, home modifications, medical supplies, and lost wages would acknowledge what caregivers actually spend—and help keep them financially afloat.
Respite care. Burnout is not a personal failure; it's the predictable result of a system with no backup. Flexible, accessible respite services—including in-home and emergency options—can make the difference between a caregiver managing and a family in crisis.
Simpler navigation. Families shouldn't need to decipher the system alone. We must better connect people to aging services, transportation assistance, and caregiver support programs that already exist but remain hard to find.
Medicare's caregiver training benefit. Medicare already covers caregiver training when integrated into a patient's care plan - but most families never hear about it. Hospitals and discharge planners should be actively promoting this benefit, especially after a hospitalization or a diagnosis like dementia or stroke.
None of this is radical. Family caregivers save the healthcare system enormous sums and provide the kind of continuity and compassion no institution can replicate. The least we can do is build policies that recognize their work, ease their burden, and treat them as the essential partners they are.
New Hampshire can be a state where older adults age with dignity at home, but only if we stop taking the people making that possible for granted.
AARP, "Valuing the Invaluable 2026," March 2026. Available at aarp.org/caregiving.