They may not include funds to benefit those who care for the elderly. Well, using 1998 data, it is about equal to the total bill for nursing home expenditures in North Dakota. Or the total expenditures for home health care in Mississippi. Or the annual cost of prescription drugs in Delaware. To be fair, of course, it is important to acknowledge that quantity is not everything.
Good things can come in small packages.
And there are enough huge rusting hulks on the social program landscape to testify to the fact that more money does not necessarily constitute effective strategy. Business Week, January 31, 2000. Health and Aging, National Center for Health Statistics, Department of Health and Human Services. Jacob Siegel, Aging Into the 21st Century, Department of Health and Human Services, 1996. Medicare Enrollment Trends 1966-1999, Health Care Financing Administration.