U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is searching for to bolster Medicare with a brand new profit serving to to pay for house care.
Throughout an look on ABC’s “The View” Tuesday, Kamala Harris introduced a brand new Medicare home-based care profit that focuses on serving to the “sandwich era,” or adults who’re caring for his or her getting older dad and mom whereas additionally elevating youngsters on the similar time.
“There are such a lot of folks in our nation who’re proper within the center,” Harris stated throughout her look on the present. “They’re caring for their children they usually’re caring for their getting older dad and mom, and it’s simply virtually unimaginable to do all of it, particularly in the event that they work. We’re discovering that so many are then having to depart their job, which implies shedding a supply of revenue, to not point out the emotional stress.”
About 53 million adults within the U.S. look after a partner, aged mum or dad or relative, or a toddler with special-needs. This is a rise from 43.5 million in 2015, in accordance information from a 2023 Guardian Life report.
Broadly, Harris is searching for to permit Medicare to cowl house care, which is a proposal that has been raised by house care business stakeholders up to now. Presently, Medicare covers house well being care – typically delivered after an acute occasion – however not house care, which is usually a non-medical service.
“They need to keep of their house,” Harris. “They don’t need to go someplace else. Plus, for the household to ship them to a residential care facility, to rent anyone, that’s so costly.”
Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, identified that the demand for senior care continues to develop.
“Nonprofit suppliers of getting older providers have lengthy warned that our present patchwork method to long-term care supply and financing is damaged. Too many individuals battle to entry the assistance that’s wanted as we age,” she stated in a press release. “As we speak’s announcement is actually thrilling, and distinctive. Hardly ever will we see a proposal with this degree of specificity included in a presidential platform. Including house care to the Medicare program, a much-needed element of a broader long-term care financing reform effort, will supply hundreds of thousands of older adults and households entry to providers that promote high quality of life and security as folks age at house.”
She added: “On the similar time, we can’t overstate that with out workers, there is no such thing as a care. Continued consideration and funding within the workforce, as famous within the proposal, stays important.”
Presently, Medicaid is offered for low-income seniors that want entry to home- and community-based care providers (HCBS).
Nonetheless, as Senior Housing Information sister publication Dwelling Well being Care Information has beforehand reported, lengthy ready lists have been a persistent concern that limits entry to those care providers. Extra not too long ago, MACPAC examined the usage of presumptive eligibility and expedited eligibility as a method to pace up the method. A small portion of seniors within the U.S. are presently lined by Medicaid.
“That is about Medicare, as a result of in any other case folks need to spend down all the pieces they’ve obtained to be eligible for the care they want as a Medicaid recipient,” she stated.
Harris additionally famous that her proposal was about serving to people get forward, and never simply get by.
Joanne Cunningham, the CEO of the Partnership for High quality Dwelling Healthcare, known as the event “necessary and welcome” information.
“It exhibits an amazing understanding of what … the sandwich era’s wants are, and the wants that many older folks have with a purpose to dwell independently of their properties,” she informed SHN sister publication Dwelling Well being Care Information. “I’d additionally need to remind the Biden, Harris administration that the present Medicare house well being program is below assault presently, and has been since 2020, with billions of {dollars} in cuts which have diminished entry to care, so I feel that funding and a stabilization of the present Medicare house well being profit is one thing that can also be wanted. With this information, I’d simply supply that advice and reminder.”
The Nationwide Alliance for Care at Dwelling additionally applauded Harris for pushing care at house into the highlight.
“By elevating the subject of increasing care at house in such a visual means, in excessive profile means, that is one other acknowledgment that American households actually are hoping for stronger entry to care at house, that individuals need to age in place with dignity and independence,” Dr. Steve Landers, CEO of the Nationwide Alliance for Care at Dwelling, informed HHCN.
