The nation’s first public long-term care insurance program survived an effort to make it a voluntary program, which supporters said essentially would have killed the program.
More than 55% of Washington state voters rejected Initiative 2124, which would have amended the Washington Cares, or WA Cares, Act to allow workers to opt out of the state’s long-term care insurance program. An analysis by the state found that many of the state’s younger, higher-income and healthier workers may have dropped out of the program, making it insolvent as soon as 2027.
WA Cares provides up to $36,500 in long-term care insurance benefits. It is funded with a 0.58% payroll tax from all workers in the state. California, Illinois, Minnesota and Massachusetts also now are exploring their own public financing for long-term care programs.
LeadingAge Washington, the Washington Health Care Association and the AARP were among 150 health and safety net organizations that opposed the initiative. The program also fended off challenges in the courts.
LeadingAge Washington President and CEO Glen Melin told McKnight’s that he and his members were “pleased that voters chose not to derail the program,” calling it a “shared investment in the future well-being and security of the citizens of our state.”
“WA Cares isn’t perfect, just as the Medicaid program isn’t perfect, and it will need to be refined and improved just as Medicaid has been,” he said, adding that Initiative 2124 would have restricted, rather than improved, access to care.
“To promote access to care in the years and decades ahead, we’ll need a range of options. WA Cares is innovative,” Melin said. “It’s one building block in the effort to create a sustainable approach to funding long-term care in the state of Washington. It won’t fix everything, but it will help, and helping is a good thing.”
WA Cares was enacted in 2019. Workers began paying taxes into the program in 2023, and the state will begin paying benefits in 2026. The program pays for a “comprehensive array of long-term care services and supports, including assisted living, skilled nursing and in-home care, and expenses such as meal delivery or construction of wheelchair ramps.
The program provides opportunities for certain groups to opt out, including for workers who live outside of the state, who have private long-term care insurance policies, who are married to active-duty service members, who hold non-immigrant work visas, or who are veterans with a 70% of higher service-connected disability rating.
Source: McKnights Seniorliving
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