In a NYT article about family caregivers for ill and disabled relatives:
Various surveys have found that 20 million to 50 million family members in the United States provide care that has traditionally been performed by nurses and social workers. Family caregivers supply about 80 percent of the care for ill or disabled relatives, and the need for their services will only rise as the population ages and modern medicine improves its ability to prolong lives.
Do nurses and social workers "traditionally" care for the ill and elderly, and are only now being supplanted by family members and friends?
Or do families "traditionally" care for their own? And what about that 80 percent figure? Is that higher or lower than in the past? The article doesn't say.
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