Opinion: State is gathering stories about long-term care

Elizabeth New (Hovde) of the Washington Policy Center believes lawmakers should focus on strengthening the Medicaid safety net by passing reforms that end abuse of a program meant for the vulnerable.

Elizabeth New (Hovde) believes lawmakers should focus on strengthening the Medicaid safety net by passing reforms that end abuse of a program meant for the vulnerable

Elizabeth New (Hovde)
Washington Policy Center

The WA Cares Fund is looking for “care” stories. A recent email asks, “Do you have personal or professional experience caring for an older adult who needs help with daily activities like eating, bathing, getting around the house, grocery shopping, and taking medication? We want to hear your story to help raise awareness about the need for long-term care!”

Raising awareness is fine. Long-term care is needed at some point by many people. But is that what the state is doing?

The email goes on to say, “We are looking for Washingtonians who participate in the program” — WA Cares, that is. Most W2 workers are forced to “participate” in WA Cares unless they qualified for one of the limited exemption categories, applied for an exemption and were granted one. And by “participate in the program” the state means people who pay taxes to WA Cares. The program is not something anyone can take advantage of right now.

The email continues, “In particular, we want to connect with:

Workers who have family experience with caregiving, either now or in the past
Workers who want the flexibility to leave the state and keep their WA Cares benefits
Sandwich caregivers who are providing care for both older adults and children
Healthcare or social work professionals who have experience working with people who need long-term care.”

Stories gathered will be put on the WA Cares website or used in videos.

Again, raising awareness is fine. Trying to create an affinity for a state program by painting people’s past hardships as something WA Cares could have alleviated is another. That is what the state has been doing for more than a year now, failing to recognize that many other ways to save for or invest in possible long-term-care needs exist, that many people have more than they’ll need for long-term care someday and that not everyone will qualify for the inadequate $36,500 lifetime benefit for state-approved needs and caregivers.

Personal stories used in the state’s so-far one-sided marketing campaign should be balanced by stories about how this compulsory program and tax is impacting workers in the state today.

For starters, the state should gather stories from low-income workers who live paycheck to paycheck but are still forced to give 58 cents of every $100 they earn to the state to be used by people who are not in need of taxpayer help.

Medicaid helps the vulnerable

An initiative to make WA Cares and its payroll tax optional will be on the November ballot. Whether Initiative 2124 passes or fails, Medicaid, which is a federal-state program intended to be a safety net for people in actual need, will still be available for those needing financial help with long-term care. It’s available now without making those same people pay a tax during their working years.

Lawmakers should focus on strengthening that safety net by passing reforms that end abuse of a program meant for the vulnerable. Instead, lawmakers and unions supporting WA Cares are busy arguing that no one should have to pay for their own long-term care without taxpayer support. That’s the wrong message, and “care” stories the state is recruiting will be used to help fuel it.

Elizabeth New (Hovde) is a policy analyst and the director of the Centers for Health Care and Worker Rights at the Washington Policy Center. She is a Clark County resident.