BILL REQ. #:  H-3946.1 

Read first time 02/07/14.   Referred to Committee on Appropriations.

     AN ACT Relating to studying options for providing long-term care coverage; and creating new sections.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature makes the following findings:
     (1) By 2030, nearly twenty percent or one out of every five people in our state will be age sixty-five or older and by 2060 the population of people who are age eighty-five or older in our state will more than triple. This will affect every area of state government;
     (2) There is a need for increased focus and planning to support the growing number of seniors and people with disabilities in Washington state. Planning is necessary across a broad range of policy areas including health, long-term services and supports, housing, transportation, financial security, and protections for vulnerable adults;
     (3) To address the growing demand for long-term services and supports, Washington state must do more to leverage private resources, support families so they can take care of their loved ones without having to resort to medicaid and help people plan for potential future costs;
     (4) In the past few decades, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to reform Washington's system of supports for seniors to emphasize home and community-based options. These efforts have saved millions of dollars by preventing expensive institutional placements; and
     (5) Washington must begin planning for the future long-term services and supports needs of its residents by taking steps to grow its workforce, resources, and quality long-term services and supports, and identify alternative long-term care financing options to help families and reduce the rate of growth in medicaid.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   (1) The department of social and health services shall contract for an independent feasibility study and actuarial modeling of public and private options for leveraging private resources to help individuals prepare for long-term services and support needs. The study should model at least three options: (a) A public long-term care insurance benefit funded through payroll deduction that would provide a time-limited long-term care insurance benefit; (b) a set of regulatory changes that would encourage the development and growth of new products on the insurance market that combine features of life insurance, long-term care insurance, annuities, and medicaid life settlements; and (c) public-private options to facilitate a new marketplace for long-term care insurance policies, such as through the Washington health plan finder, for private long-term care insurance policies that would provide a time limited benefit, an age defined individual mandate for purchasing these policies, and subsidies to ensure affordability for lower income individuals.
     (2) The report must include an evaluation of each option based on: (a) The expected costs and benefits for participants; (b) the total anticipated number of participants; (c) the projected savings to the state medicaid program; and (d) legal and financial risks to the state. The joint legislative executive committee on aging and disability shall provide oversight and direction for this analysis and will convene interested stakeholders to provide input on the study design. The department of social and health services shall provide a report on its findings and recommendations to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the legislature by January 15, 2015.