Many AFSCME members work in the care economy – among them child care providers and home care workers. For many years, they have been calling for more affordable child care for families with young children as well as investments in elder care as our country’s population continues to age.
The Biden-Harris administration has taken important steps to address this crisis. The American Rescue Plan, for example, invested $60 billion in the care economy and represented the biggest investment in child care ever. Yet more needs to be done.
That’s why AFSCME strongly supports Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan to expand Medicare to cover home health services for the elderly, which she announced on Tuesday on “The View.”
Her plan is aimed at helping the almost one in four adults – including about half of people in their 40s – who are part of the “sandwich generation.” These are individuals who have an elderly parent at the same time as they are raising a child or providing financial support to an adult child.
“I took care of my mother when she was sick,” Harris said on the show. “She was diagnosed with cancer. So, it is a personal experience for me as well as something I care deeply about.”
Harris’ plan would “cover home care for the first time ever for all of our nation’s seniors and those with disabilities on Medicare who need it, in addition to vision and hearing benefits to help seniors live independently for longer,” according to a fact sheet published by her campaign.
To pay for these new benefits, Harris said, she will expand Medicare drug price negotiations, which have already capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35. Additional money will come from increasing discounts for certain brand-name drugs in Medicare and addressing Medicare fraud.
“It’s about dignity for that individual,” Harris said on the show. “It’s about independence for that individual. People are of declining skills to some extent, but their dignity and their pride has not declined.”
Harris’ plan will help family caregivers stay in the labor force. In addition, by allowing seniors to stay in their homes instead of receiving care in nursing homes, it will save money for both families and the federal government.
By strengthening Medicare to cover home care services, the workers who provide those services will also benefit. “This initiative will provide care workers access to better wages, improve quality of care for seniors and those with disabilities, and treat our seniors with the dignity they deserve,” the Harris campaign said.