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Molly Butler/Media Matters

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Broadcast news mostly ignored Kamala Harris’ proposal expanding Medicare to cover in-home health care for 15 million seniors

Harris' Medicare proposal was given just 35 seconds of combined airtime on ABC, CBS, and NBC news shows after two weeks

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

The major corporate broadcast news networks — ABC, CBS, NBC — largely ignored Vice President Kamala Harris' proposal to expand Medicare to pay for long-term, in-home care services for seniors in the two weeks since she announced it.

ABC, where Harris broke the news on an episode of The View, otherwise made only passing mention of the proposal, as did NBC, while CBS ignored it entirely. All told, this transformative expansion of Medicare garnered just 35 seconds of combined airtime across the three broadcast networks in the last two weeks.

  • An October 11 KFF study estimated that 14.7 million Medicare beneficiaries, or nearly 23% of enrolled beneficiaries, could potentially benefit from this policy. KFF explained that “under current law, Medicare coverage of home care is quite limited” and that in-home care “is extremely expensive,” adding that existing Medicaid “coverage rules are complex” for in-home care. KFF additionally explained that this proposal would also expand Medicare to cover vision and hearing and end the Medicaid practice of recovering care costs from estates after patients pass away.

    Harris’ proposal has received wide, dedicated coverage from numerous news organizations. This includes web-based stories from the major broadcast news networks. However, these networks have failed to air substantial coverage of her policy on their morning, evening, or Sunday news programs, which are watched by millions of people, during the past two weeks.

    A previous Media Matters study found zero ABC, CBS, or NBC evening news coverage of Harris’ proposal on October 8, the day she unveiled it on ABC’s The View. We extended this study through October 22 to encompass morning, evening, and Sunday news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC.

    We found just three mentions of her policy proposal during this time frame, totaling merely 35 seconds.

    ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned her policy for 12 seconds on October 20 during a news package on both presidential candidates.

    NBC Nightly News mentioned it for 16 seconds at the end of an October 15 news package on soaring home senior care costs, which this policy is specifically designed to address. (Harris’ policy received much more prominent mention in an online version of the story, which would have presumably enjoyed a fraction of the broadcast program's more than 5 million-person audience).

    NBC also briefly aired Harris mentioning her policy for 7 seconds on the October 20 edition of Meet the Press.

    CBS News failed entirely to mention Harris’ Medicare expansion policy on its morning, evening, and Sunday news programs.

    Methodology

    Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; and NBC’s Today, Nightly News, and Meet the Press for the terms “Harris,” “vice president,” “nominee,” or “candidate” within close proximity of any of the terms “Medicare,” “hospice,” or “long term” or any variation of either of the terms “senior” or “elder” or the term “home” within five words of the term “care” from October 9, 2024, the day after Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris introduced her proposal to have Medicare pay for long-term, in-home health care costs for seniors, through October 22, 2024.

    We timed segments, which we defined as instances when Harris’ proposal of a plan for Medicare to cover long-term, in-home health care costs for seniors was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the proposal. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed the proposal with one another.

    We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned Harris' proposal without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about Harris' proposal scheduled to air later in the broadcast.