Medicare would expand home health care aid under Harris proposal

Taking aim at the health care cost challenges faced by the sandwich generation, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a proposal Tuesday to help cover the costs of home health care for older Americans by expanding Medicare coverage.

Nearly one-quarter of American adults are part of the “sandwich generation,” caring for young children as well as older family members. The Democratic presidential nominee announced her plan Tuesday morning on ABC-TV’s “The View.”

Pew Research Center estimates that adults in their 40s are the most likely to find themselves “sandwiched” between their school-age or young adult children and a parent aged 65 or older.

“It is a personal experience for me, as well as something I care deeply about,” Harris said as she described taking care of her cancer-stricken mother.

Helping those 'right in the middle'

“So much about that is giving folks dignity,” she said. “There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle. 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.”

Harris did not go into details about the plan, except to say that she would cover the cost of the new benefit by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations.

“We are going to save Medicare that money, because we're not going to be paying these high prices, and that those resources are then put to use in a way that helps a family,” she said.

Harris’s plan could cost around $40 billion a year, according to one estimate by The Brookings Institution.

Avoiding the need to 'go broke'

“Part of the reason for my plan is that this is about Medicare, because otherwise people have to spend down everything to be eligible for the care they need as a Medicaid recipient. People feel like they have to go broke in order to qualify for Medicaid assistance. So that's why my plan is about Medicare, so that can coexist with insurance, but it is a way to help people actually not just get by, but get ahead.”

Medicare already covers in-home health care up to 35 hours a week for seniors who are deemed homebound or whose illness deems such help necessary. Seniors who require more than "intermittent" care don't qualify, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Harris’s universal in-home care proposal would require congressional action.

The cost of providing in-home long-term care services is staggering. KFF estimated that paying for a professional live-in home health aide, for example, can cost more than $288,000 a year.

Families USA Action, a health care consumer advocacy organization, praised Harris’ plan. In a statement, Anthony Wright, executive director, said, "Health and consumer advocates support any effort to strengthen and expand Medicare to provide more and better benefits for the 66 million older Americans and people with disabilities who rely on it. So many families are forced to work a second job as caregivers for aging loved ones due to the high cost of in-home health care, which can be thousands of dollars a month. Adding an in-home health care benefit to Medicare will bring urgent relief to not just the seniors who need it, but also to the families who carry this burden and provide unpaid care for months and years at a time.”

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