In less than three weeks we will be having an election that could set the stage for what happens in the country for many years to come. Or not. There is always a lot of fearmongering over what one candidate will do compared with the other. Usually, change comes slowly, or not at all. As is usually the case in presidential elections, there is little talk about senior care, other than the growing costs of entitlements, with no reasonable solutions coming from either side. It is a topic that is easily avoided, and we are tired of the lip service.
But in Washington State, there are several initiatives on the ballot, one of which involves taxes and LTC insurance. You will remember that Washington has tried to install a LTC insurance policy for its residents to help cover the costs of “long-term care.” At first it was mandatory, and so full of holes that it has been rejected twice by the residents. First of all, the dollar amount of coverage was so small (less than $40,000 over a lifetime) that it would never do much to cover the real costs of long-term care, whether a long-term stay in a nursing home or assisted living community, or even home healthcare for any period of time and any real illness. Second, there was a much-too-long waiting period and if you moved out of state, it would lapse.
Called Initiative 2124, it would make participation in the state’s LTC insurance elective by default, and it would permit opt-outs at any time. The state has already been collecting the tax as a payroll deduction. Opponents of this Initiative believe that if passed it would essentially undermine the financial footing of the program, which it would, but we believe the financial footing would lose ground over time anyway because it just won’t work, and voters will begin to realize it.
Think Class Act, that was originally part of the ObamaCare legislation, but even the Democrats who passed it subsequently figured out it was a financial non-starter and let it disappear without a fight. This is what should happen in Washington State, if the people ever truly begin to understand the real economics of its LTC plan, which are phony. It always sounds good, until you really need long-term care, and discover there is no “long” in any of these state plans, as good as they may sound. The only thing that works is saving for your care, real LTC insurance in the private market, or Medicaid, which unfortunately is overused and in real need of reform so it just serves the poor and not the middle class and upper middle class.
