Harris’ New Proposal Calls For Extending Medicare Coverage For In-Home Health Care Services As Well As Coverage For Vision and Hearing Care
Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a new proposal to expand Medicare to help older adults and their families pay for in-home health care, helping working families, older Americans, and the “sandwich generation.” The Harris campaign also released plans to add vision and hearing coverage to traditional Medicare. These new benefits will be paid for by the billions of dollars in savings generated by expanding the Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiation program, which already is saving older adults and taxpayers billions of dollars. Harris wants to accelerate the program and increase the number of drugs included in negotiations and to pay for long-term care, vision, and hearing coverage.
Harris continues to be a health care champion for lower costs and better care, but President Trump wants to go backwards. Trump is continuing to push the MAGA Project 2025 agenda that includes cutting Medicare, repealing the historic Inflation Reduction Act, banning Medicare from negotiating drug prices, raising drug costs and out-of-pocket expenses, and ending protections for the over 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.
Expanding Medicare to cover in-home health care, vision, and hearing would be a big deal for older Americans across the country. The vast majority of older adults want to stay in their homes, and these benefits will help them age in place while giving their families more breathing room. But don’t just take our word for it:
Inside Health Policy: Harris Proposes Select Medicare Vision, Hearing Coverage Expansion.
- “Harris proposed Tuesday (Oct. 8) to extend Medicare coverage to certain vision and hearing services, including glasses and hearing aids, in addition to adding a long-term care at home benefit to the program, the cost of which would be offset through expanded drug price negotiations, according to a fact sheet.”
- “More than 90% of Medicare enrollees use glasses or contacts and nearly half of enrollees’ struggle with hearing, Harris’ campaign says in a fact sheet. Under Harris’ proposal, Medicare would cover hearing aids and related exams as well as eye exams and glasses or lenses.”
- “‘This is so important for seniors,’ Protect Our Care Executive Director Brad Woodhouse says in an email to Inside Health Policy. ‘The combination of long-term care and benefits for vision and hearing will mean so much to the safety, financial security, health, and dignity of seniors. The vast majority of older adults want to stay in their homes, and these benefits will help them age in place while giving their families more breathing room. It can’t be overstated what a game changer this will be for seniors and their families.’”
The New York Times: Harris Proposes Medicare Benefits for Home Care, Vision and Hearing.
- “[T]he Harris campaign also endorsed expanding Medicare to cover vision and hearing benefits — proposals that have been floated before but rejected by Congress. Medicare, the federal insurance program for older Americans, does not cover such services, which many older people use. Some private Medicare Advantage plans offer it as an optional benefit.”
- “Home health services that last more than a few months represent ‘the biggest gap in Medicare,’ said David Grabowski, a health policy professor at Harvard who studies long-term care. Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, covers home care for elderly and disabled Americans who need it, but people are forced to spend all their savings to qualify and often face long waiting periods.”
Axios: Harris Campaign Leans Into Long-Term Care At Home.
- “Harris’s proposal would let Medicare cover in-home health care after a medical provider has determined an enrollee needs help performing daily tasks. Medicare would create a sliding scale for beneficiary cost-sharing for the long-term care services. The administration would partner with technology companies and other private-sector businesses to create the program, a fact sheet said. Harris also announced on Tuesday that she would work with Congress to add vision and hearing coverage to traditional Medicare and end Medicaid programs’ ability to seize the homes of recently deceased enrollees.”
- “Medicare currently doesn’t cover long-term care — a fact that often catches older adults by surprise. Medicare’s existing home health benefit covers specific services like physical therapy and medical supplies for a limited time following a hospital stay. It does not cover help with daily activities like bathing or cooking. That leaves Medicaid as the main payer of extended care for seniors and people with disabilities. Many people end up spending down their assets near the end of life to qualify for Medicaid coverage of long-term care. Others might pay upward of $100,000 out of pocket for home aides.”
TheGrio: Kamala Harris’ Proposal For At-Home Care Could Be Game Changer For Black Americans.
- “Addressing the challenges of the “sandwich generation” of Americans caring for children and their elder parents, the Democratic presidential nominee announced a plan to expand Medicare services to include at-home elder care as a benefit for the first time.”
- “Tackling wages for domestic workers is something President Joe Biden has done while in office. His administration finalized a rule that requires 80% of federal funds used for home care agencies to go toward increasing worker wages. […] Not to mention, the majority of home care workers are Black women — [Hillary Holley, executive director at Care in Action] notes it’s about 80%. A large percentage of these workers also happen to be Black women over 50 and are usually the matriarchs of their families.”
The 19th: Harris’ Medicare Proposal Could Transform Long-Term Care For The Middle Class.
- “Harris’ proposal would have enormous impact on middle-class Americans — a focus of her campaign. Unlike Medicaid, Medicare is not based on income and is available to all Americans over 65, as well as some younger people with specific medical conditions. Women in particular are poised to benefit from the proposed change as they are more likely to be caregivers for family members who need long-term care and to require care themselves as they age due to living longer on average than men. In addition, many families are currently part of what’s called the ‘sandwich generation,’ meaning they are caring for both aging relatives and children at the same time.”
The American Prospect: Harris In-Home Care Plan Recognizes Information Gap on Seniors.
- “The ‘Medicare at Home’ plan, according to a Harris campaign fact sheet, is designed to allow seniors and people with disabilities to receive assistance at home, rather than be put into costly nursing homes. It could also reduce hospitalizations, like from falls at home seniors suffer without help. (Hearing and vision coverage, which could limit other maladies that spring from untreated hearing and vision problems, could also reduce the need for some medical treatment.)”
- “After medical evaluations, doctors could prescribe home health assistance from qualified care aides certified by the Medicare program. The Harris proposal states there would be a sliding scale of cost-sharing for higher-income seniors, with full coverage at lower incomes. On the workforce side, the proposal promises to ‘draw upon best practices across Medicare plans as well as the private sector’ to train eligible care aides, while promising better wages.”
The Nevada Independent: In Reno, Walz Touts Home Health Care Plan, Harris Receives First Nevada Tribe Endorsement.
- “Less than a month before the November election, Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) made the Harris campaign’s latest bid to turn out voters in the Silver State, highlighting a recently announced proposal to cover home care, vision and hearing under Medicare and receiving Nevada’s first tribal endorsement of the cycle.”
- “‘For the first time in history, [Harris] negotiated with Big Pharma to make sure that we can now negotiate for Medicare drugs. The savings we make from that can pay for our senior care,’ Walz said, highlighting how funding for Harris’ Medicare proposal will come from the drug-price negotiation plan and crackdowns on hidden drug costs.”
Investopedia: How Harris and Democrats Will Change Medicare If They Win.
- “In an appearance on ‘The View’ today, Harris proposed to allow Medicare to cover in-home health care. She said allowing people who need long-term care to receive it at home helps preserve their independence. ‘They want to stay in their home,’ Harris said. ‘They don’t want to go somewhere else. Plus, for the family to send them to a residential care facility to hire somebody is so expensive.’ Harris said on ‘The View’ that Medicare would pay for the new benefit by using the savings from drug price negotiations. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allows the government to bargain with drug companies for drugs covered under Medicare Part D (starting in 2026) and Part B (starting in 2028).’”
The Palm Springs Tribune: Kamala Harris Proposes Historic Medicare at Home Benefit to Support Caregivers and Seniors.
- “In a significant move aimed at enhancing support for families navigating the complexities of caregiving, Vice President Kamala Harris has unveiled a plan to expand Medicare coverage to include in-home health care services. This proposal is not just about medical care; it’s about ensuring dignity for both patients and their caregivers.”
- “Currently, over 67 million Americans rely on Medicare, yet many are unaware that it does not cover long-term services such as home health aides. This gap leaves families facing daunting decisions and financial strains when seeking care for elderly or disabled loved ones. The absence of coverage for these essential services can force families into challenging situations, often compromising the quality of care provided. Harris’s proposal aims to rectify this by introducing a new Medicare at Home benefit that will provide comprehensive coverage for home care services. This initiative is designed to alleviate the burdens on caregivers, allowing them to focus on providing compassionate care while pursuing their personal and professional aspirations.”