Senate panel to hear bill on state program for long-term senior care
An exterior view of the capitol dome in Olympia, as seen in spring 2014.
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A bill in the Washington Legislature to modify a developing state program for senior care services is scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee at 1:30 p.m. Monday. The Long-Term Services and Supports Trust Program is to begin collecting premiums from workers next year.
The program began with a new law in 2019 and is “the first of its kind in the United States,” according to the state Department of Social and Health Services website.
The bill to be discussed Monday, House Bill 1323, among numerous definitions and modifications, directs the Employment Security Department to collect what it calls “premiums,” which would fund the program: The ESD shall “collect and assess employee premiums as provided in RCW 50B.04.080.”
Working Washingtonians, beginning January 2022, are to pay at a rate of $0.58 per $100 of their wages. Employers will have to collect the premiums from employees through payroll deductions off their paychecks. The RCW provides no example of calculating the cost, but an employee earning $25,000 in a year would see, over the course of the year, $145 deducted.
The program is to begin paying out benefits in 2025 to qualified individuals to be applied to typical costs associated with long-term senior care. The program “provides up to $36,500 in lifetime benefits for eligible beneficiaries,” according to the bill’s text.
HB 1323 would require employees who opt-out of the LTSS Trust Program to attest they already have a long-term care insurance plan in place before the bill takes effect, according to the bill’s text.
Under HB 1323, self-employed individuals who want to participate in the LTSS Trust Program must apply before Jan. 1, 2025, or within three years of being self-employed.
HB 1323 would also enable individuals who were disabled before turning 18 years old to be eligible for the LTSS Trust Program, according to the bill’s text. Employees who are members of federally recognized tribes would also be allowed to participate.
Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim, is HB 1323’s primary sponsor.
The House passed HB 1323 on Feb. 23 in a 56-41 vote.
Read more about LTSS at www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/stakeholders/long-term-services-and-supports-ltss.
Read the HB 1323 bill at http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2021-22/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1323-S.pdf?q=20210320142007.
Dave Burgess contributed to this report.