Harris’s Plan to Expand Medicare to Cover the Cost of Long-Term Care at Home Would Help all Americans

Caring for an aging parent can be enormously expensive and time-consuming. Yet, while most people will face the moment when a parent can no longer live without assistance, neither Medicare nor Medicaid cover in-home care. Rather, people must either try to avoid going bankrupt helping senior family members or “spend down” all of their assets until they are essentially broke to qualify for Medicaid and place loved ones in a facility.

Vice President Harris proposes to expand Medicare to provide federal funding to cover home care costs for older Americans. This could be a game changer for the middle-class.

The population is rapidly aging, and most Americans rely on Medicare to pay for medical bills. However, long-term care is often prohibitively expensive, even for simple everyday tasks like dressing and bathing.

“More than 37 million people, or 14% of the adult population, provide some form of unpaid eldercare in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The majority of these caretakers, around 59%, are women.” — CNBC

The plan would cover home care services, including home health aides. Harris proposes paying for the expansion with the money the federal government will save by being able to negotiate for lower drug prices for Medicare recipients. In contrast, President Trump would to repeal the federal government’s ability to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices and raise costs for seniors.

Kamala told the hosts of The View, “I took care of my mother when she was sick, and she was diagnosed with cancer. And so it is a personal experience for me as well as something I care deeply about. It’s just about helping an aging parent or person prepare a meal, you know, put their sweater on. And it’s about dignity for that individual. It’s about independence for that individual.”

Vice President Harris continues to offer solutions that will help lower costs for middle-class families while Donald Trump brags about not paying overtime and rambles incoherently about child care.