Biden’s plan for seniors is not just a plan for seniors



[ad_1]

Social Security credits would likely have a bigger impact, said Richard Johnson, an economist who heads the Urban Institute’s program on retirement policy. One downside, however, is that “it doesn’t help caregivers until they start collecting Social Security,” he says. “The tax credit could provide immediate help.”

Of course, the political chances of realizing all of these ideas, or any of them, remain very uncertain, even if the Senate gains a slim Democratic majority. “The question will be, ‘Do we have the political will to make this happen? Ms. Whiting said. Some Medicaid changes will also require the approval of state governments.

The plan does not go into detail on how the administration would implement all of these policies, and Biden’s transition team did not make a political adviser available to discuss the president’s goals and strategies. elected. But aspects of the plan – efforts to pass a caregiver tax credit, for example – have already attracted Congressional sponsors from both sides.

“There is growing recognition of the essential help provided by caregivers and an emerging consensus among Democrats and Republicans that they need more support,” said Dr. Johnson. “So perhaps the time has come to enact meaningful federal legislation.”

Supporters of the plan view Mr. Biden as a president with an unusually personal understanding of caregiving. He was a single father and caregiver of both injured children and an adult son with terminal cancer. In announcing his care plan, he also mentioned that he looked after his parents, when they were hospice patients, at his home.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was the main sponsor of the National Bill of Rights for Domestic Workers last year. “These are the right people to lead the conversation,” said Ms. Whiting.

But as veterans of the effort to promote a broader federal approach to caregiving, advocates like Ms. Goss Graves have also developed a well-established realism. “Things don’t happen on their own,” she says. “I would have high hopes, but I would also prepare to go to work.”

[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]

[ad_2]

Source link