“What’s next for beleaguered WA long-term care program?”

 

“What’s next for beleaguered WA long-term care program?,” by Melissa Santos, Crosscut


  

Quote:

“Nina Valerio and her husband, Joseph Scott, thought they were planning ahead by buying private long-term care insurance more than two decades ago. The Seattle couple, both retired university professors, said they have paid their monthly premiums without fail. Yet now that Joe, 86, needs help paying for nursing care, they said their long-term care insurance company has repeatedly delayed or denied their requests for benefits.”

 

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

So begins this relatively long update on WA Cares. In other words, private LTC insurance (i.e., capitalism) failed us so we must turn to the state (i.e., socialism) to save us. If I’m not mistaken the vast majority of accusations that private LTCI didn’t pay when it should have are debunked when reviewed. What usually goes unsaid is that the government programs on which we’re urged to rely instead are realistically incapable of keeping the promises they’ve made. WA Cares is now facing the fiscal and monetary realities that any responsible private insurer routinely takes into account before, not after, bringing a product to market. The best thing about WA Cares is that it should awaken other states and the federal government to the peril of making promises they can’t keep while simultaneously deluding the public that they don’t need private LTC insurance.