“Schweitzer urges Inslee to end long-term care insurance benefit,”

“Schweitzer urges Inslee to end long-term care insurance benefit,” by Anthony Kuipers, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

Quote:

“The founder and president of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories wrote a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee asking him to end a new state-mandated insurance program he believes is unfair to SEL’s employees living in Washington and Idaho. Edmund Schweitzer’s letter criticized the Long-Term Care Trust Act, which established a mandatory long-term care insurance benefit in 2019. … The letter states that SEL’s human resources department has received more than 400 emails from the company’s employees saying they do not want this benefit. SEL, based in Pullman, employs many Idaho residents who will have to pay into the fund even though they cannot receive its benefits, Schweitzer wrote. ‘Many of our Washington based employee-owners are Idaho residents,’ he wrote. ‘They would pay the tax, but not ever benefit from it. Unlike participants in a true, private insurance program, these employees will have their monthly premiums collected, then distributed by the state to others.’”

 

 

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

Just imagine the blow back when major national and international companies hear from their outraged Washington State employees who learn about the WA Cares Fund only when their paychecks shrink. Those who live in Idaho and Oregon but work in Washington will be the most disturbed. More evidence of the poor planning we observed in “The Keystone Kops of LTC Insurance.”