There's no denying it: long-term care is expensive. Medicare or health insurance does not cover it, and most people will not have enough savings to pay for it.
Get the facts: Seven in ten Washingtonians will need long-term care at some point during their lifetimes, and most older adults today end up impoverishing themselves to qualify for Medicaid.
WA Cares Fund is a new way to pay for long-term care services, including home-delivered meals, transportation, assistive equipment (like wheelchairs), grab bar installations, and more. Click the links below to learn more.
Please email us if you would like a presentation on WA Cares.
Common Questions
The WA Cares Fund is a new program that gives working Washingtonians access to long-term care coverage when they need it. Workers contribute 0.58% of each paycheck during their working years to be able to access a $36,500 lifetime benefit (adjusted annually for inflation) that can help pay for long-term care services when needed.
Workers begin contributing to WA Cares on July 1, 2023 and benefits become available July 1, 2026. In order to use your benefit, you must meet a contribution requirement as well as a care need requirement. To learn more, please visit wacaresfund.wa.gov.
The WA Cares Fund is designed to provide affordable long-term care coverage to all Washingtonians. It’s a modest but critical step to fix a long-standing problem with long-term care. While 70% of us will need long-term care in our lifetimes, most of us don’t have a way to pay for it. Long-term care is expensive, and the costs hit us when most of us are on a fixed income and can’t afford it.
Having this coverage in place will prevent many of us from having to spend down our life savings and become impoverished to get access to Medicaid, which is the primary payer for long-term care now.
Having WA Cares coverage will also make it much less likely that our loved ones will have to sacrifice their own financial security to care for us as we age or if we suffer an accident or illness during our working years. To learn more, please visit wacaresfund.wa.gov.
WA Cares Fund is the result of years of research on how to make long-term care affordable for everyone in Washington. Before developing the program, the state studied data and worked with experts to explore potential public and private solutions. That research included that the only way to make long-term care insurance affordable for all Washingtonians is through a universal public long-term care program like WA Cares.
The WA Cares Fund was designed to offer a modest benefit at an affordable cost. The legislature passed the LTSS Trust Act in 2019 to create WA Cares. To learn more, please visit wacaresfund.wa.gov.
Arun's Story
30 years ago, Arun’s parents moved into his home, which he shares with his wife and kids. His mother is now 86, and his father, who is 90, has dementia and has to be supervised closely.
Miguel's Story
Miguel and his wife Irma live in Skagit County and have spent the past twenty-one years together. Three years ago, Irma broke one ankle and dislocated the other. Her ability to accomplish daily tasks has been affected ever since the injuries, and Miguel has stopped working outside the home so he can be her full-time caregiver.
Miguel y su esposa Irma viven en el condado de Skagit y han estado juntos los últimos veintiún años. Hace tres años, Irma se quebró un tobillo y se dislocó el otro. Desde que se lesionó, su capacidad para realizar las tareas diarias se vio afectada, y Miguel ha dejado de trabajar fuera de casa para poder ser su cuidador de tiempo completo.
Sally's Story
Sally’s partner Patty was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. An in-home caregiver now visits for several hours a day to help Patty eat, bathe and get around. The WA Cares Fund will help families with the costs of long-term care and provide support for caregivers like Sally.
Sawyer's Story
Sawyer lives, works, and studies in Kittitas County. When she was 19 years old, she became paralyzed as the result of a spinal injury and has used a wheelchair ever since. A caregiver visits her home for a few hours each day to help with things like showering, dressing, and medication management.