Manu Sareen, Minister for Children, Gender Equality, Integration and Social Policy led a delegation to the US in September.

The delegation met with senior staffers from the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging; Joshua M. Wiener, Distinguished Fellow, at RTI International; and leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services. These discussions also focused on elder care and how elder care is dealt with in the Affordable Care Act or what is better known as ObamaCare.

Minister Sareen also met with the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the largest advocacy organization in the US, to discuss the challenges of elder care and elder care policy in the US – in particular how the various states deal with the issue and the unique problems each state faces.

In Maryland, the delegation visited two elder care facilities and met with Maryland legislators and officials to discuss common challenges.
The focus of the delegation was to share experiences from Denmark and discuss the potential for future collaborations. With a growing senior population in the US, elder care is an issue of growing concern. The goal of the trip was to explore whether the Danish model, modified to American practice, may be able to benefit the US in future and can become another example of how Denmark and the US can work together to solve problems on both sides of the Atlantic.