In her efforts to win over sandwich generation voters, Vice President Kamala Harris has given them some serious food for thought: a Medicare expansion plan she contends will help adults raising young children also care for their aging parents.
The presidential candidate revealed her "Medicare at Home" proposal during an early October episode of ABC's The View stating that it would relieve the stress felt by the roughly 1-in-4 American adults who provide intergenerational care.
"It's just almost impossible to do it all, especially if they work," Harris said. "We're finding so many of them having to leave their jobs, which means losing a source of income, not to mention [enduring] the emotional stress."
Under the Harris plan, Medicare would be required to cover the costs of long-term care offered in a family's domestic setting; it would also add vision and hearing benefits for seniors. While clear numbers haven't emerged, Medicare at Home would also provide coverage "for those of modest incomes with a sliding scale," where seniors with higher incomes would participate in a cost-sharing arrangement, according to the Harris campaign.
Based on a nurse or physician evaluation, seniors would also qualify for visits from Medicare-designated caregivers that "can include any qualified home health aides, personal care attendants, or direct care workers recognized by their state."
Historic? Yes, according to health care leaders such as Tricia Neuman, senior vice president and executive director for the Program on Medicare Policy at KFF.
"It's been a long time -- decades -- since a presidential candidate put forward a Medicare proposal to help middle-income families cope with the crushing cost of home care," Neuman told CNBC after Harris made her announcement.
Neuman may be among the most qualified to assess the potential impact. Three days after the The View episode, she co-authored a piece where KFF estimated that 14.7 million Medicare beneficiaries would potentially be eligible for the new home care benefit.
The "why" behind Harris' plan also stems from a 2022 Pew Research Center study cited by her team. The survey of nearly 9,700 adults found that 23% had a parent 65 or older while raising at least one child younger than 18 or providing financial support to an adult child. Her goal is to provide the financial help they need, which would in turn ease the caretaking pressures coming at them from all sides.