Vice President Kamala Harris is Proposes expansion of Medicare To cover the cost of in-home caregivers for many elderly people, we market directly to .sandwich generation“It’s about adults caring for their elderly parents in addition to their own children.
The plan, called “Medicare at Home,” focuses on Medicare coverage. cost of Using home care services and nurses as a means for families to avoid nursing home costs. Harris combines this with plans he has already announced. childcare tax credit Up to $3,600, or $6,000 for parents with newborns.
Harris revealed the plan in a Tuesday interview on the talk show “The View.” she spoke About her own caregiving experience her mother While she had cancer.
She emphasized that her plan is an expansion of Medicare, not Medicaid. This allows coexistence with private insurance. Medicaid also has stricter eligibility rules.
According to Census data, about a quarter of U.S. adults belong to the sandwich generation, which cares for children and elderly parents. Harris campaign officials said internal data shows there are a significant number of undecided voters in this caregiver group.
“With the election this close, proposals that speak to the economic security and health care needs of older Americans have the potential to resonate and make a difference,” said Rich Americans Against Retirement Executive Director. Fiesta said. -Trump ad.
According to a September AARP poll, 78% of women aged 50 and older who are caring for elderly family members say they are struggling financially. Another AARP poll in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, shows former President Donald Trump leading among voters over 50, with Trump at 53% and Harris at 44%. It became.
With the exception of the poorest seniors eligible for Medicaid, most seniors rely on home care when they are no longer able to cover all of their daily necessities but are not ready to move into their own home. You have to rely on your own savings and family. Long-term care facilities.
“There are cases where families who are not currently considered minimum income but whose long-term care is provided and paid for are low-income and wish to qualify for Medicaid,” said Kevin Prindiville, executive director of the justice organization. is increasing,” he said. aging.
Democrats have accused Trump of supporting cuts to the Medicare budget during his tenure in the White House, a charge the Republican nominee denies.
He hinted at this idea in a CNBC interview in March, saying “there's a lot that can be done in terms of rights cuts,” but later suggested those cuts would have an impact on “rights theft and mismanagement.” .
He has since said he would not cut “a penny” from Social Security or Medicare, and the Republican Party's platform includes similar language.
How much does “Home Medicare” cost?
Adding Medicare coverage to home health care could start at $40 billion a year, according to a Brookings Institution study cited by the campaign.
However, the study's authors caution that their numbers are only the starting point for a “very conservatively designed universal program.” Depending on how generous Congress is, the final price could be significantly higher.
“I'm not saying this is a program we should adopt, but rather that we can do this for a ridiculous amount of money,” said Jonathan Gruber, chair of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-author of the estimate. It's just that it can be done.” .
Gruber said the modeling also doesn't take into account significant savings that could drive profits as knock-on effects such as less money. spent on nursing home families and being able to return to full-time work.
“We think we could potentially free up millions of informal care workers to earn income in the labor market, and they would pay taxes.” he said.
How will Mr. Harris pay for Medicare at home?
Mr. Harris said that the costs of expansion were mainly due to: Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Programcombined with a list of other reforms, including increasing the discounts drug companies must offer on brand-name prescriptions.
This isn't the first time Harris has promised regional expansion. Policies of the Inflation Control Act Target prescription drug prices. Medicare currently saves just $31 billion a year from negotiated programs and other drug price provisions, which would not even cover the starting price of his proposal.
Harris called on Congress to expand drug bargaining programs, accelerate the pace of new price caps set by Medicare, and target more drugs to the limits. A white paper from Stanford University cited by the campaign says more aggressive drug price negotiations could save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade if they can survive a tough battle on Capitol Hill.
Mark Cohen is co-director of a center focused on long-term services and supports supported by LeadingAge, a nonprofit organization that provides aging services. LeadingAge has long called for home health care to be added to Medicare as a fix for a “dangerously broken” system.
“At some point, we're going to have to talk about the funding sources to pay for that, like Medicare itself. But I think it's a very smart idea right now to move this forward. And I think if you What you need to do is cultivate a political constituency, said Cohen, a gerontology professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. ” he said.
Who would be covered by Harris' “Medicare at Home” proposal?
According to the campaign's proposal, all Medicare enrollees who are deemed “unable to independently perform activities of daily living such as bathing, eating, and going to the bathroom” would be eligible after being reviewed by a doctor or nurse. That's what it means. People with “severe cognitive impairment'' are also eligible.
Not everyone can have Medicare pay for everything. Seniors with higher incomes will have to pay more out of pocket.
The details of that coverage are a big factor that can also affect the cost of the plan, which could ultimately affect the number of Americans who take advantage of the proposed benefits.
The proposal would only cover home care aides “designated by Medicare,” which “includes all eligible persons.” home health aidepersonal care attendant, or state-approved direct care worker. ”
The campaign does not address whether cash payments could be made to families to care for elderly relatives, as an earlier bill by House Democrats proposed.
Prindiville said councilors are trying to “strike the right balance” to make home health care more affordable, and this is one of the things they expected to see in the details of the proposal. said.
“If a family wants to provide that kind of care, let's pay for it in a way that makes economic sense,” Prindiville said.
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