Maya Harris during a roundtable discussion with Congresswoman Gwen Moore and State Senator LaTonya Johnson. (Photo/ Chastity Duffey)
By Karen Stokes
Maya Harris, sister of Vice President Kamala Harris spent time in Wisconsin last week visiting small businesses in Green Bay and Milwaukee.
In Milwaukee, she visited minority-owned businesses including La Finca Coffee House and shops in the Sherman Phoenix marketplace. Following the visits, she joined Congresswoman Gwen Moore and State Senator LaTonya Johnson for a round table discussion on the Vice President’s New Way Forward plan.
Harris talked about her family background and how her mother came from India as a young woman whose goal as a doctor was to cure cancer. Later on in her life, she was diagnosed with cancer and that changed Maya and Kamala’s life forever. Their lives changed due to the dynamic of adult children caring for their parents.
This is referred to as the sandwich generation. Middle-aged adults who are caring for both elderly parents and their children. A Pew Research Center study estimated that about one in seven Americans between the ages of 40 and 60 are simultaneously providing some financial assistance to both a child and a parent. With the added pressures of managing one’s career and personal issues, as well as the need to contribute to one’s retirement, the individuals of the sandwich generation are under significant financial and emotional stress.
Maya Harris visits Sherman Phoenix (Photo/Chastity Duffey)
“Fortunately, my mother had good health insurance and she had us pull together as a family. We know that’s not always the case for everyone,” Maya said.
“Earlier this week Kamala announced a historic new Medicare at home benefit. To cover the cost of healthcare for the first time for seniors. It will help seniors remain at home with the dignity and care that they need while easing the burden on families,” Maya said. “Then of course there’s Donald Trump, who’s called Social Security a ‘Ponzi scheme,’ who included deep cuts to Social Security in every single budget that he proposed as president.”
Medicare, the largest health insurance program in the country, currently does not cover long-term care and limits in-home support to a few weeks. People who need these types of care must pay out of pocket, use private insurance, or qualify for Medicaid.
“It’s the privilege of having served with then-Senator Kamala Harris, to see her continuing to uplift the needs of especially family issues, women’s issues, I’m almost in tears,” said Congresswoman Gwen Moore. “As a member of Congress and the Ways and Means Committee I have championed trying to fill this gap of people who are on Medicare who worked hard all their lives but have too much income for Medicaid, they would be able to stay in their homes except for the fact that they need someone to come in and help them. Medicare doesn’t provide home health care.”
Despite the current situation in the country, the roundtable expressed they still have hope and are hopeful of a Harris presidency.
“What gives me hope is all of you because we can do this, we will do this together, we absolutely will make Kamala Harris the next president of the United States,” Maya said.