“Ben Veghte: As long-term care needs grow, WA Cares offers long-term solution for working Washingtonians”

 

“Ben Veghte: As long-term care needs grow, WA Cares offers long-term solution for working Washingtonians,” by Ben Veghte, The Spokesman-Review

“As we approach the start of contributions to the WA Cares Fund, the state’s new long-term care insurance program, there are understandable questions about the program, its costs and the benefits. … WA Cares is intended to provide access to long-term care for the broad middle class. Without WA Cares, people who need care are forced to pay for everything out of pocket and often spend down their life savings to just $2,000 to qualify for Medicaid. Loved ones must step in and use their own resources or provide unpaid care, often sacrificing their own economic security in the process. … Rarely is any important innovation, public or private, perfect from the get-go. Look no further than the social programs implemented in the past century to address a pressing need – Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. None was flawless from the start. All were met with early opposition. Yet today these programs are broadly popular, and millions of Americans rely on the security they provide.”

LTC Comment, Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform:

Here’s a program based on false assumptions (The Fallacy of Impoverishment) and misplaced confidence in social insurance. What a tragedy that the government entitlement programs people have been assured will protect them are all on the verge of insolvency. Yet Washington is selling the same bill of goods. Let’s hope other states don’t buy this pig in a poke.