Vice President Kamala Harris outlined a new proposal for home health care on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, a plan for expanding Medicare coverage aimed at helping what is called the “sandwich generation” take care of their aging parents.
Many adults find themselves straddling the dual responsibilities of rearing their children at a time when their parents need more assistance to stay at home.
And millions of Americans struggle to find affordable home care for themselves or their loved ones as they become older. Medicare, the federal insurance program for older Americans, does not cover long-term care and will generally pay for a home aide only if a patient is recovering from an acute medical condition, like a stroke, and only for a short time, often just a few months.
While Medicaid will pay for a home aide if someone is poor or has no assets, there are long waiting lists to qualify. And in many areas of the country, there is a severe shortage of workers because of low wages and better, less stressful jobs in other businesses.
Most people have no choice but to rely on a family member to care for them because they cannot afford the cost of care, which can surpass the expense of an assisted living facility. Agencies can charge about $30 an hour, according to Genworth, a long-term care insurance company. Others end up spending most of their assets and seeking care in a nursing home, where Medicaid does not have waiting lists.
Judy Feder, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, who published a recent paper on a possible Medicare home-care benefit, said such a policy would fill a major gap in Medicare, and relieve financial and physical burdens on family members. The private market for long-term care insurance has not functioned well, she said: “It’s a catastrophic, unpredictable event for which you need insurance.”