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WATCH: Consoling ‘sandwich generation’ caregiver, Harris says in-home health plan is about dignity


By — Molly Finnegan



Politics

                                Oct 21, 2024 2:43 PM EST
            


Vice President Kamala Harris addressed how her administration could offer relief to overextended family caregivers during a Monday campaign stop in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
Watch in our player above.
The Democratic presidential nominee appeared with former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., at a town-hall style event appealing to Republicans with doubts about voting for former President Donald Trump.
Harris took a question from a woman named Alex, who explained she has an elementary-age son and a mother with dementia who needs full-time care. She asked Harris how she would would bridge the gap between the "staggering" cost of paying for child and elder care, and the fact that many of those care workers are underpaid.
Harris offered her empathy to the audience member and other members of the "sandwich generation,"  noting her experience taking care of her own mother, who died of colon cancer in 2009.
The Democratic nominee said that she as president would change the rules so that Medicare would cover "the cost of in-home health care for your parent."
"You can then have the assistance with someone who can help prepare that meal, help them get dressed, and you can still give that baby of yours all the love that they deserve, and you can have sanity in the process," she added. "And everyone can have dignity."




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By — Molly Finnegan






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WATCH: Consoling ‘sandwich generation’ caregiver, Harris says in-home health plan is about dignity first appeared on the PBS News website.
        


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I don't get why they're calling it sandwich generation. 

We're the utterly fucked generation. Can barely take care of our own families, don't own anything bc the people whose asses need wiping gave us credit scores, keep wages low, and housing costs high. 

I went through being a sole caregiver my entire life, luckily for my mother who was the best person I've ever met in my life. But it was hard, humiliating, scary, revolting, depressing. And that was for a woman who always unconditionally loved me and treated me with respect from a child on. What about parents whose kids hate them, bc they didn't respect who they were. And now they'll be called on to help. 

I hope they don't feel pressured. They will be pressured though. To keep parents at their houses, to do the jobs of professional nurses who had special training, for free, or with added expense. 

We need to watch out for our own mental health rn. Don't let people who already ruined the beginning of your life ruin the middle, especially if you have kids. You didn't ask to be born. You don't owe them anything more than you think you do. Maybe they might actually figure out what a social net is for and realized the generation they entirely disenfranchised can't even help to a proper standard, even if they wanted to. And vote accordingly.