{"id":1048686,"date":"2024-10-08T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T23:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1048686"},"modified":"2024-10-09T07:03:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T11:03:58","slug":"harris-walz-plan-for-at-home-care-will-lower-costs-while-trumps-project-2025-agenda-would-raise-health-care-home-care-child-care-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/harris-walz-plan-for-at-home-care-will-lower-costs-while-trumps-project-2025-agenda-would-raise-health-care-home-care-child-care-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Harris-Walz Plan for At-Home Care Will Lower Costs While Trump\u2019s Project 2025 Agenda Would Raise Health Care, Home Care, Child Care Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In response to the Harris for President campaign\u2019s announcement of a major Medicare proposal for long-term senior care, <\/em>DNC National Press Secretary \u2068Emilia Rowland\u2069 released the following statement:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor our seniors and the millions of Americans who are raising kids as they care for aging relatives, Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 plans to lower the cost of home care<\/a>, child care<\/a>, and health care<\/a> could not stand in starker contrast with Trump\u2019s Project 2025 plans to rip away health care<\/a> and raise the cost of prescription medications<\/a>, all while eliminating Head Start and federal funding for affordable child care. Like many Americans, this struggle is deeply personal<\/a> for Vice President Harris \u2013 and her new plans will lower the cost of at-home care for more than 105 million Americans who are caring for both kids and aging parents by expanding Medicare to include at-home care for the first time in our country\u2019s history<\/a>, lowering health care costs for the entire family<\/a>, and lowering the cost of high-quality child care<\/a>. This is the change America\u2019s seniors, moms, dads, and caregivers deserve \u2013 and they won\u2019t let Trump take us backwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW: The Harris-Walz campaign\u2019s new proposal will lower costs for seniors and the generation that cares for them by expanding Medicare to include at-home care.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huffpost<\/a>: \u201cDemocratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday will propose a major new initiative: expanding Medicare to cover the cost of long-term care at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch a plan could mean the option of staying at home, rather than in a nursing facility, for the millions of seniors and people with disabilities who need help with the daily tasks of life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt could also mean physical and financial relief \u2015 and new opportunities for school or work outside the home \u2015 for the millions of working-age Americans who today provide so much of that care on their own without much in the way of outside assistance.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the proposed legislation is enacted, such a program would represent a substantial boost in federal support for caregiving and, by any measure, one of the largest one-time increases in American history.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>The Hill<\/a>: \u201cHarris to announce plan for Medicare home care benefit\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe plan for a Medicare home care benefit would cover services like an in-home aide, aiming to allow families to avoid the high cost of sending older relatives to live in senior facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe vice president, if elected, would propose having the benefit paid for by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing the discounts drug manufacturers cover for certain brand-name drugs in Medicare, and cracking down on hidden costs from Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), which have reportedly acted to drive up prices, according to her campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with their plans to expand Medicare to include at-home care, the Harris-Walz ticket will increase access to quality, affordable child care and lower health care costs \u2013 relieving the burden on the \u201csandwich generation.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kamala Harris, A New Way Forward for the Middle Class<\/a>: \u201cVice President Harris believes that our tax code should work for working Americans. She supported the first increase in three decades to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for workers who aren\u2019t raising a child in their home. The Earned Income Tax Credit is a federal tax cut that boosts the incomes of and lowers taxes for low-to-moderate income workers. Vice President Harris\u2019s expansion tripled the maximum tax cut for these workers to more than $1,500 for 2021. \u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVice President Harris and Governor Walz will restore the expanded Child Tax Credit and expand it further to provide up to a $6,000 tax cut to families with newborn children. This will help parents in the first year of a child\u2019s life\u2014a period of critical development of a child when costs can add up for young parents who need to buy diapers, clothes, car seats, and more. They believe no child in America should live in poverty, and this reform will have a historic impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Washington Post<\/a>: \u201cMore than one-third of mothers who are registered to vote said they worry \u201ca lot\u201d about affording child care, according to a recent KFF poll … Vice President Kamala Harris has made the \u2018care economy\u2019 a cornerstone of her platform, vowing to permanently increase the child tax credit, add a one-time $6,000 credit for newborns and cap child-care costs at 7 percent of a working family\u2019s income.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris for President<\/a>: \u201cVice President Harris cast the deciding vote on the American Rescue Plan, which made historic investments in the care economy. As President, she will fight to lower care costs for American families, including by \u2026 ensuring hardworking families can afford high-quality child care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harris for President<\/a>: \u201cVice President Harris will make affordable health care a right, not a privilege by expanding and strengthening the Affordable Care Act and making permanent the Biden-Harris tax credit enhancements that are lowering health care premiums by an average of about $800 a year for millions of Americans. She\u2019ll build on the Biden-Harris Administration\u2019s successes in bringing down the cost of lifesaving prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries by extending the $35 cap on insulin and $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket spending for seniors to all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Trump\u2019s Project 2025 plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act while cutting access to long-term care for seniors and rolling back the $35 cap on insulin for Medicare recipients would hit the \u201csandwich generation\u201d with higher health care and child care costs for themselves, their children, and their parents.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Center for American Progress<\/a>: \u201cOverall, Medicare Part D enrollees across the nation could lose out on up to $7.4 billion in out-of-pocket savings next year. Finally, in what would amount to a huge windfall for Big Pharma, Project 2025 would bar the federal government from negotiating for lower drug prices.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProject 2025 shifts the tax burden from the wealthy onto the middle class. Based on analysis using U.S. Census income data, the median household headed by someone over age 65 would see a tax increase of $900 per year under the plan. \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCutting access to long-term care: <\/strong>Project 2025 proposes capping Medicaid payments to states with no regard for their actual spending needs on health and long-term care. It also gives states the power to deny coverage of particular services, including long-term services and supports such as home and community-based care. According to KFF data, more than 21 million seniors and nonelderly adults with disabilities were enrolled in Medicaid in 2021; this accounted for nearly one-quarter of Medicaid recipients yet more than half of all Medicaid spending. Additionally, the proposed funding caps could force states to restrict eligibility for long-term services and supports, according to KFF. Alternatively, Medicaid funding caps could force states to outright deny coverage of particular benefits, especially costly services such as long-term care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Center for American Progress<\/a>: \u201cA stated goal of Project 2025 is to \u2018[g]ive beneficiaries direct control of how they spend Medicare dollars.\u2019 Yet the result of making MA the default Medicare enrollment option will be the opposite: to give for-profit corporations more control by restricting the choices of even more older Americans.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProject 2025\u2019s plan to make MA the default option will mean that corporations, not doctors or patients, will be able to control what care an even greater number of enrollees can and cannot receive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump<\/a>: \u201cAnd what we\u2019d like to do is totally kill [the ACA]<\/strong>, but come up \u2014 before we do that \u2014 with something that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Budget Committee Democrats<\/a>: \u201c59 years ago, Medicare was created to ensure seniors and Americans with disabilities can get the medical care they need. With the Inflation Reduction Act, House Democrats worked with President Biden and Vice President Harris to cap insulin prices, limit out-of-pocket costs, and negotiate lower drug prices for Americans with Medicare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDonald Trump\u2019s Project 2025 would take us backward by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and raising costs on at least 18 million seniors.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and Vance\u2019s Project 2025 agenda would also tear away options for affordable, quality child care for families that are already stretched thin. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n