Serious illness in America carries a kind of moral virtue—one that ennobles the victim of a medical tragedy—but we still view the frailty of old age as a pitiable curse. For all the advances in modern medicine and technology, most of us will require assistance in our latter years to carry out the basic tasks of living. “We need help, often for long periods of time, and regard that as a weakness rather than as the new normal,” writes surgeon and author Atul Gawande in Being Mortal.

We have yet to adjust accordingly. As Gawande explains, countries like the U.S. are no longer full of large, multigenerational families who can swoop in and provide that help. The bulk of caregiving for the elderly, ailing, and disabled is still carried out by family members, who help their relatives with everything from bathing and dressing to preparing meals and managing medication. It’s decidedly unsexy, sometimes grueling domestic drudgery, mostly carried out by women who are hard-pressed to juggle these responsibilities with work and childcare—the so-called “Sandwich Generation” stuck between aging parents and kids. “It’s an invisible workforce,” says Carol Regan, a senior adviser and long-term care expert at Community Catalyst, a national health advocacy group.

That’s why it’s fairly remarkable that family caregiving has come up in the 2016 campaign at all. All three Democratic candidates have offered some form of support to Americans who take time out of the workforce to care for ailing adult relatives, with Hillary Clinton unveiling her plan last week. It’s the first presidential race in recent memory where leading candidates have highlighted the need to support caregivers for elderly and disabled family members—a shift that reflects not only a focus on family-oriented economic policies, but also the huge demographic changes on the horizon. About 12 million Americans, or 4 percent of the population, currently require long-term care—a number that is expected to more than double by 2050.

The policy solutions that Democrats are proposing are undeniably modest, given the scope of the problem. Clinton recently called for a new tax credit to help family caregivers who assist adult relatives who are elderly, disabled, or chronically ill; it would help offset up to $6,000 in annual expenses tied to caregiving. Her plan also includes an expansion of Social Security that would allow those who take off time from work for family caregiving to earn credits for their Social Security benefits. Neither Bernie Sanders nor Martin O’Malley have come out in support of the tax credits, but both candidates support the expansion of Social Security for family caregivers. (Shockingly, there’s been radio silence from Republicans on the topic.)

Clinton is making the most concerted effort to turn family caregiving into a 2016 issue. It fits into her broader campaign strategy to provide concrete solutions for ordinary, middle-class families, particularly through targeted tax credits that could play well in a general election. It’s unclear how much low-income families will benefit, as Clinton hasn’t indicated whether she’ll make the tax credits refundable, or how she’ll ultimately pay for the plan. But she has been raising the issue with frequency: In July, she spoke about the “caregiving crisis” at a New Hampshire town hall, responding to a woman who was caring for her husband and mother, who both had Alzheimer’s. At the time, Clinton was vague about specific solutions but tried to make a personal connection. “My late mother lived with us until she passed away, she was thankfully in good health, but she had some real beginnings of deterioration physically,” Clinton said, though she didn’t specify whether she was personally caring for her mother at the time.