Vote ‘no’ on I-2124 and keep WA Cares participation mandatory

This election season we’re hearing more about the high costs of care — including long-term care for disabled, chronically ill and aging adults. It’s about time, considering at least 70% of us will need help with bathing, meals and getting around at some point.

Most people are surprised to learn Medicare and health insurance don’t cover long-term care. Only the very wealthy can afford to pay out of pocket for home care aides and residential facilities. Many of us will have no choice but to drain our savings, even sign away our homes, to qualify for Medicaid. Inevitably, a woman in our family will be the one most likely to care for us. 

Initiative 2124 on our fall ballot makes things worse. It’s intentionally crafted to sound innocuous, but leading experts — including the insurance industry — say I-2124 would destroy the program, taking care benefits from nearly 4 million Washingtonians. That’s why the Washington State Nurses Association, the National MS Society, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and 140 more organizations representing patients, caregivers, retirees and working families oppose I-2124. 

Today, too many people cycle in and out of the ER with falls, dehydration and other conditions because they can’t get the support they need at home. By taking away care coverage that could prevent unnecessary hospital stays, I-2124 will drive up the cost of health care for everyone, and force more to make impossible choices: go without the care we need, or go into debt to get it.

The initiative’s sponsors suggest we should just buy private long-term care insurance. Unfortunately, that’s not a real solution for most of us. Only 3% of Americans own long-term care insurance policies because of how expensive they are. Private insurance can cost $8,000 a year for a 55-year-old couple, with premiums required after they retire and are on a fixed income. Private insurance companies routinely jack up premiums without warning, delay and deny claims, reject people with cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and other preexisting conditions — at least 50% of us — and discriminate against women by charging them more than men.

Planned Parenthood, Moms Rising, League of Women Voters, Casa Latina and many others oppose I-2124 because it is especially harmful to women, who are more often the ones to leave their jobs to care for family members. There are nearly 1 million unpaid caregivers in Washington and one in four workers, most often women, are leaving jobs or cutting hours to care for loved ones. 

Christina Keys was one of those millions of women. When her healthy mother had a severe stroke at 63, Christina had no choice but to leave her career to care for her mother, draining their savings and setting Christina back for the rest of her life. I-2124 takes away benefit payments that can go to family caregivers, offsetting lost income and thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses for care supplies. Women in the “sandwich generation,” juggling work, family, and caregiving for both children and aging parents, will be under even more pressure than they are now.

If you believe that a benefit that starts at $36,500 (and could grow to more than $55,000 by 2046) isn’t helpful in covering care expenses, here’s a reality check. Most people have less than $5,000 in savings, and 80% of households with older adults “would be unable to absorb a financial shock” like paying for care expenses.

Initiative 2124 would destroy our long-term care benefits program instead of improving it. In the last two years, lawmakers strengthened the program by covering near-retirees and part-time workers, and made our benefits portable so we can still tap them if we move out of state. Lawmakers should act on a number of recommendations to make our benefits even more flexible, including removing the five-year consecutive work requirement (SB 6072). 

To those who say the government shouldn’t be in the insurance business, ask folks who depend on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid how they feel about that. I-2124 does nothing to solve the care crisis, it just makes it worse. We urge Washington voters to vote no on I-2124 because we can’t afford it.