The liberal political culture of social policy in the U.S. has long limited public finance of long-term care to individuals with very low income and assets. A series of changes in the labor market, family structure, and population age structure, along with the failure of private long-term care insurance to extend coverage to the middle class, have ushered in a shift in long-term care finance policy toward a much stronger public role. Washington State's new social long-term care insurance program, the WA Cares Fund, is the leading example of this trend. It was enacted in 2019 and reformed in 2021 and 2022 and begins collecting premiums in 2023 and paying benefits in 2026. The state is also developing a supplemental private insurance market that should be able to offer supplemental coverage to the middle class at a more affordable price point than hitherto. This presentation will discuss what led to enactment of the WA Cares Fund, provide an overview of the policy design, including the supplemental private market, and share early learnings.
About the speaker:
Benjamin W. Veghte is Director of the WA Cares Fund, the first U.S. universal long-term care insurance program in Washington State. He is also an MIT CoLab Mel King Community Fellow, a member of the Care Guild, a group of 125 innovators redesigning care for the 21st century, and an expert on German and OECD social policy. His work focuses on developing policies that improve the economic security of workers and help them balance the responsibilities of work and family caregiving. Veghte studied the history of European social policy during his Ph.D. studies at the University of Chicago. While doing his field work in Germany he took a position at the University of Bremen, where he taught comparative social policy until 2008. In 2008/9 he earned a Mid-Career MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.