Sen. Cory Booker has a plan for improving long-term health care for patients and workers who provide the care by making changes to the existing system.
He'd increase the limit on assets people could hold and still qualify for Medicaid coverage to $200,000 and income limits to 300% of the poverty line, about $50,000 annually for a couple. Asset and income limits currently are complicated, but are far less generous. People who exceed those limits would still be able to buy in to the program on a sliding scale. He would also expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for family caregivers and pay long-term care workers a minimum $15/hour wage. Additionally, he backs legislation that expands long-term home care to people with disabilities.
The cost of his expansion would not be shared with states, a departure from the current system and one that should make even Republican states happy. Except that anything a Democratic president does, especially a black one, won't make Republican state lawmakers happy. The firm cost is unknown right now, but will be big. This costs a lot. It has to, because it's expensive any way you look at it to provide care for the people with disabilities who must have care and for people at the end of life. Booker would overhaul capital gains, estate, and income taxes to pay for it. That's also a heavy political haul, as is any healthcare reform proposal. It's going to take a trifecta—Democratic House, Senate, and White House—to accomplish.
Medicare for All proposals, by the way, wrap long-term care into the system and emphasize as much as possible in-home and community-based care, including adult day care, and shift us away from the system in which we have to warehouse our sick elderly and people with disabilities in facilities staffed by underpaid and overworked caregivers. It's not a civilized system. So good on Booker for recognizing that and bringing this aspect of health care to the fore.