Pittsburgh, PA -- Vice President Harris announced Tuesday a historic plan to strengthen Medicare to cover home care for seniors. The new benefit would drastically lower costs for the “sandwich generation” – Americans who are raising children while caring for aging parents.

In response to Vice President Harris’ historic proposal to expand Medicare home care benefits to address long-term care needs for seniors, Mitch Kates, executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, issued the following statement:

“Throughout her career and as vice president, Kamala Harris has remained laser-focused on delivering for working families, lowering costs, and creating an opportunity economy.

“On Oct 8th, Vice President Harris continued that record through her historic proposal to offer a first-ever Medicare home care benefit to support families struggling with the costs of long-term assistance for their loved ones – allowing seniors to age with dignity. Caregiving is an issue that is personal to Vice President Harris, as it is for so many Pennsylvanians.

“That’s why Vice President Harris is proposing common sense policy to ease the strain on millions of Americans in the ‘sandwich generation’ who are caring for both children and aging loved ones.

“In sharp contrast, Donald Trump continues to push his Project 2025 agenda to hike costs on Pennsylvania families by thousands of dollars a year. The choice in front of Pennsylvania voters could not be more clear and they will elect Kamala Harris – the only candidate fighting for their families – this November.”

Vice President Harris’ proposal to strengthen Medicare to cover home care services will:

• Lower costs for seniors and their families, letting seniors live at home in dignity, and ease the stress and emotional burdens often associated with having to seek facility care for older loved ones.
  
  
• Include Medicare coverage for vision and hearing to help seniors live independently for longer.
  
  
• Support caregivers by providing a more stable income source and working to raise wages.
  
  
• Fully pay for the new benefit by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing the discounts for certain brand-name drugs in Medicare, cracking down on Pharmacy Benefit Manager hidden costs, and other measures.

In sharp contrast, Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would threaten working families’ health care access and raise costs on Pennsylvanians while gifting tax breaks to billionaires:

• Trump’s Project 2025 would restrict older Americans’ access to Medicare.
  
  
• As president, Trump tried to cut Medicare and Medicaid in every single one of his budgets, has called for raising the retirement age to 70, and said privatizing Medicare would create a “stronger system.”
  
  
• He denied millions of families the full child tax credit and tried to cut federal child care funding by nearly $100 million.
  
  
• His Project 2025 agenda will actually raise costs on families by nearly $4,000 a year.