Appearing on “The View,” Harris laid out her plan to expand Medicare benefits to include home care for seniors and people with disabilities for the first time. Additionally, she proposed hearing and vision benefits to help seniors live independently longer.
“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,” Harris said. “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."
Medicare does not cover long-term services and assistance, like home health aides, except under very narrow circumstances, such as if a person is recovering from an acute medical condition. Private insurance doesn’t cover those services either, leaving families to pay out of pocket.
The plan could provide financial relief for families and falls within the same vein of some of Harris’s health care proposals such as eliminating medical debt and capping prescription drug costs.
This expansion of Medicare benefits would require congressional actions, something unlikely to happen if Republicans control the next Congress.
The proposal stands to be a popular promise, particularly among older women and especially in some key battleground states.
Harris has talked about being a caregiver in the final years of her mother Shyamala’s life following a cancer diagnosis, bringing up the experience again on “The View.”
“It’s just about helping an aging parent, or person, prepare a meal, put their sweater on. And it’s about dignity for that individual, it’s about independence for that individual,” she said. “People are of declining skills to some extent, but their dignity, their pride has not declined.”
According to AARP data, 34 percent of older women in Michigan identify as family caregivers, compared to 30 percent of older voters overall. In Georgia, 37 percent of older women identify as family caregivers, compared to 34 percent of older voters overall.
More than three-fourths (76 percent) of likely voters 50-plus in Pennsylvania said they would be more likely to support a candidate who provides support for family caregivers who are helping their loved ones live independently in their homes.
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