WA Cares is not the solution for the state’s graying population

With Initiative 2124 breathing down lawmakers’ necks, it’s a good time for the Legislature to acknowledge the mistake that is WA Cares and repeal the 2019 law that created the program. The initiative would make the state’s payroll tax and program for long-term care optional.

At the least, the Democrats who control what gets discussed in Olympia should do what The Seattle Times editorial board pleaded in a Feb. 8 editorial: Have hearings on the initiative, listen to constituent concerns and deal with lawmakers’ unwillingness or inability to fix the misguided program. But Democratic leaders have announced they won’t hold hearings on I-2124.

It’s hard to believe that any legislator who truly wants to help a graying population pay for long-term care believes WA Cares is the right approach. The program is riddled with false promises, and its solvency concerns have even proponents crossing their fingers. WA Cares has so many flaws, the law that created it has been tweaked several times in its short lifetime and a long list of additional recommendations awaits adoption. 

Even if lawmakers do think this program will help Washington workers — not just grow the number of paid caregivers advocated for by the Service Employees International Union and solve Medicaid’s budget concerns with cost-shifting — the program at its core makes no sense. Is long-term care a high cost for people? For some, you bet. But WA Cares does not fix that problem. 

Washington workers who do end up needing long-term care someday — and who qualify for the program’s lifetime benefit of up to $36,500, despite the hurdles legislators have put in place — will learn that the benefit amount is woefully inadequate. Even if the amount adjusts with inflation as hoped, which is still not a sure thing, the lifetime benefit a worker could end up with after paying 58 cents on every $100 earned in her working years won’t typically be enough to cover LTC needs. Sadly, the money taken and given to others could have gone toward other life needs or saved for long-term care in ways that offered a better return on investment. 

Perhaps worst of all, part-time and low-income workers who pay this payroll tax could watch their money go toward the long-term care of people with more income and resources. It makes no sense to create a safety net for people not in need of taxpayer help. 

Medicaid already provides a safety net for people who do. Lawmakers need to reform Medicaid to keep that net strong and end abuse of taxpayer generosity. Medicaid is not LTC insurance and should stop being used as such — especially when research finds that many older people can afford long-term care with their life savings and assets if required to. 

Stephen Moses, president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, agrees that access to quality long-term care for all could, and should, be accomplished by encouraging private financing instead of Medicaid funding for most Americans. In a recent article, he noted that Americans spent $530 billion on LTC in 2021. A small amount of that — just 12% — was made up of out-of-pocket expenditures or people using their income or savings. 

While most people don’t consume their life savings paying for long-term care, despite what Washington state’s marketing campaign for WA Cares suggests, a lot of people do take advantage of Medicaid’s resources. They let other taxpayers pick up the tab for their long-term care. 

Instead of rearranging WA Cares’ deck chairs, crossing fingers and ignoring constituents, lawmakers should increase people’s awareness of the likely need for, and cost of, long-term care, while working on ways to end the easy availability of Medicaid dollars. They should be urging LTC planning early in life and encouraging personal responsibility for the possible need, which is just one of many in life. Our Legislature should enact state reforms to create a healthy, price-competitive insurance market that benefits everyone. 

State lawmakers should repeal WA Cares this session, which could help them focus on real solutions. Doing that also would allow lawmakers to right their wrong, rather than relying on voters to do the work with Initiative 2124.