Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is working hard to win the support of older voters, but what would she do to address their many concerns if she is elected president?
In a campaign that has not yet shown many of its policy cards, Harris has offered only the roughest sketch of a governing agenda. But her time as vice president and senator provides some important clues. Among the issues she has addressed in some fashion: Paid family leave, more aggressively lowering the cost of Medicare drugs, unspecified Social Security reforms, tougher nursing home regulation, more funding for Medicaid home and community-based long-term care, and better pay for direct care workers.
The Republican platform, released during its July convention, also was long on promises and short on details. But Harris at least has a track record on some of these issues. Let’s look at how she might approach some as president:
Paid Family Leave: Harris has been a strong supporter of a federal paid leave program for years. She made it a priority in her very first appearance after President Biden withdrew from the campaign in June. The Democratic platform, approved at the party convention but written while Biden was still a candidate, calls for 12 weeks of paid time off to “care for a loved one.” While Harris most often speaks about the idea in the context of raising young children, she has supported efforts to provide leave for those caring for aging parents as well.
Prescription drugs. The Biden Administration and congressional Democrats succeeded in passing legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate prices for 10 prescription drugs starting in 2026, gradually increasing by 20-a-year by 2029. Harris promises to accelerate that schedule and boost the number of drugs subject to price negotiations.
That Democratic platform, which Harris has not explicitly endorsed, would raise the number of drugs subject to price negotiation to 500 by 2030.
Other Medicare benefits: The platform also calls for expanding Medicare benefits to include hearing, vision, and dental coverage. These benefits often are offered though Medicare Advantage managed care plans but are not available in traditional Medicare.
Social Security: Harris frequently vows to protect Social Security and Medicare but does not say how. In the Senate, she cosponsored a bill authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have increased benefits, subjected wage income in excess of $250,000 to the payroll tax, and expanded the Social Security tax to include investment income.
However, she already has implicitly disavowed one part of the bill by promising to stick with Biden’s commitment to not raise taxes on those making $400,000 or less. The party platform backs the idea of raising Social Security taxes on “the wealthiest Americans” but does not define either who they are or how a tax increase would function.
Without significant changes to Social Security, the program will become insolvent in a decade, resulting in across-the-board benefits cuts of more than one-fifth, a median annual benefit cut of $5,900.
Long-term care. As vice president, Harris became the face of the Biden Administration’s efforts to toughen nursing home staffing rules and safety regulations, expanding Medicaid home and community-based services, and paying aides and other direct care workers higher wages.
Biden’s bold efforts to increase federal funding for Medicaid home care had only limited, temporary success. In his 2025 budget, Biden proposed a scaled back, but still substantial, plan to increase the federal payments for Medicaid home care by $150 billion over 10 years. While the party platform does not explicitly echo that call, it does support eliminating Medicaid’s home care waiting list, which may be as many 700,000 people across the country.
While we don’t know many details of Harris’s agenda for older adults, she speaks often about the importance of the “caring economy.”
The biggest question for a President Harris will be where support for older adults fits in her exceedingly ambitious—and costly—agenda. At best, newly elected presidents usually get to achieve one big thing. For example, Barack Obama got the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Donald Trump won congressional passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Biden, often underestimated, accomplished much more. But he was the exception.
Even with a Democratic Congress, Harris won’t get everything she wants. How will those promises to prioritize the needs of older adults fit with her plans to reduce the costs of housing and groceries, increase support for young families with children, and raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations while cutting them for low- and middle-income families?
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