Exclusive | Harris plan for in-home elder care will cost tens of billions more than projected: economists

Vice President Kamala Harris’ new plan for Medicare to cover the costs of in-home care for seniors will cost tens of billions of dollars more than her campaign projects, economists and experts told The Post.Harris, 59, announced her plan during her media blitz on Tuesday, saying: “It’s just about helping an aging parent or person — you know — prepare a meal, put their sweater on” while relieving Americans of the cost of transferring loved ones to a residential care facility.The “Medicare at Home” initiative would pay for health aides to assist seniors who “are unable to independently perform activities of daily living like bathing, eating, and going to the bathroom and/or face serious cognitive impairment,” according to a Harris campaign press release.While the Harris team cites a Brookings Institution white paper that estimates the program cost at $40 billion, the proposal’s details are scant about how it “will be fully paid for” by negotiating lower prescription drug prices, cracking down on pharmaceutical benefit managers, “addressing Medicare fraud” and implementing “international tax reform.”The Democratic presidential nominee is also promising the benefit will extend to “all of our nation’s seniors and those with disabilities on Medicare,” which currently serves at least 67 million Americans.But Mark Warshawsky, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) focused on long-term care issues, told the Post the plan “will be very expensive for the taxpayer” and a “much larger” price tag than the Democratic campaign is estimating to expand in-home care, which currently costs $130 billion nationwide.“My view [of the plan] is largely negative because these costs are currently covered by a range of both private and public spending already,” Warshawsky said.“And then for those that can’t, Medicaid covers these expenses.”“There are a lot of loopholes that enable people who have significant asset...