Out Front: Election Insights: Candidates’ Plans for Elder Care

Health care and particularly long-term health care are on voters’ minds as election season is in full swing. As a firm whose mission is ensuring our older adults receive quality care, we are following the presidential candidates’ positions as they develop. Here’s where they stand:

Kamala Harris

Medicare Proposal to Include Home Health Care Benefits

Kamala Harris announced yesterday her proposal to expand Medicare to include long-term home health care benefits.* Her plan would also expand Medicare to cover hearing and vision benefits as well.**

Harris proposed that the Medicare expansion, projected to cost $40 billion/year, be financed by allowing Medicare to continue to negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies, which just began mid-August 2024 in a landmark deal reached by the Biden Administration.  Other policies proposed to help cover the cost include taxes on companies that shift jobs overseas. Harris’ program will also require payment from families on a sliding scale according to income.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he will repeal Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act, which provides health insurance for 45 million Americans. However, he has yet to propose any alternative health care plan. Similarly, no Republican in Congress has put forth an alternative health care plan to date.

A Trump campaign spokesperson said that Trump will shift resources to at-home senior care, support unpaid family caregivers with tax credits and reduced red tape, and will overturn disincentives that have caused shortages in the home health care workforce.

*Currently, Medicare only covers home care after hospitalization when there is an acute care need; such care is very short in duration, typically two weeks, and often only for a few hours per day.

**Certain optional Medicare Advantage Plans may currently cover hearing and vision for some participants.