- VP Kamala Harris proposed Medicare coverage for in-home eldercare.
- The proposal is intended to appeal to families stuck between care for kids and grandparents.
- Medicare currently does not fully cover long-term services, like at-home aid.
Vice President Kamala Harris wants to make it easier for families struggling to care for children and aging parents simultaneously.
During a Tuesday interview on "The View," Harris proposed a first-ever Medicare benefit to cover in-home care needs for older adults. According to a senior campaign official who previewed the announcement, the plan is intended to appeal to the "sandwich generation," or the adults who are raising kids while also caring for aging parents.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 37.1 million people — 14% of the US population — provide unpaid eldercare in the country, and nearly 4.5 million people are in this lifestage.
The official said that Harris' proposal would cover services like in-home care aide, allowing seniors and families to avoid the high costs of a care facility or nursing home. This proposal follows previous plans Harris announced to lower the costs of childcare, including an expansion of the child tax credit and a $6,000 tax cut for families with newborn kids.
"There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle," Harris said during the interview. "They're taking care of their kids, and they're taking care of their aging parents, and it's just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work. We're finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress."
Additionally, according to a fact sheet from the Harris campaign, the "Medicare at Home'" initiative would provide coverage on a sliding scale for those with modest incomes to higher incomes to tailor coverage to the needs of older adults.
Medicare currently does not fully cover the costs of long-term services like in-home aid, and eldercare costs are continuing to rise. According to a recent survey from Genworth, a long-term care insurance company, the average cost of in-home care stood at $75,504 in 2023 — up from just over $68,000 in 2022.
At the same time, childcare costs remain high — a report from Bank of America earlier this year found the average couple with two children spent over 30% of their combined wages on childcare costs, leaving families who are caring for both children and older adults in a financial bind.
Harris' campaign official said her proposal to cover the costs of in-home care would be paid for by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations and increasing discounts drug manufacturers cover for certain brand-name drugs under Medicare, among other things.
Along with Medicare at Home, the Harris campaign outlined a proposal to expand Medicare to include vision and hearing coverage.
Childcare and eldercare have been focal points for the presidential campaign. While former President Donald Trump has not provided details on how he would tackle the costs of childcare — he said during September remarks at the Economic Club of New York that he would increase tariffs when asked about childcare costs — his VP pick, JD Vance, has previously suggested that grandparents help out more with childcare.
Vance later elaborated on his remarks during the vice presidential debate on October 1, saying that families need more childcare options: "One of the biggest complaints I hear from young families is people who feel like they don't have options like they're choosing between going to work or taking care of their kids. That is an incredible burden to put on American families."
With a rapidly aging population in the US, caring for older adults will likely become a more prevalent issue. Still, it's unclear if Congress would approve Harris' proposal; President Joe Biden has previously proposed expanding eldercare, which ultimately did make it into his 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
Are you in the "sandwich" stage of life? Share your story with this reporter [email protected].