The caregivers provide 17 billion hours of unpaid care per year, Carrillo says, valued at more than $200 billion.

Other costs include the value of unpaid care provided by family and friends to the vast majority of Alzheimer's patients who live at home.

The President's proposals would encourage and reward people who provide informal, unpaid care to spouses and parents.

By court order, New Jersey had to change the way it compensated hospitals for unpaid care.

Background information covering families, general health and disability, unpaid care, language, occupation and industry, qualifications and economic activity.

The issue of whether female relatives - or anyone else - would provide unpaid care for relatives simply would never have arisen for most people.

Accounting for time spent in unpaid care is extremely difficult because it is often an emotionally-involved activity that isn't always reported as singular activities.

Doctors, hospitals, clinics, and all other health care providers compensate for unpaid care by charging more to the people who have insurance.

And yes, the gender care gap is closing, with more men who take their share of unpaid care'.

By 2009, about 61.6 million caregivers were providing "unpaid" care at a value that had increased to an estimated $450 billion.