 LTC Bullet: A Better LTC Answer than WA Cares Friday, October 24, 2025 Seattle— LTC Comment: As WA Cares slides down the slippery fiscal slope facing all compulsory, payroll-funded government entitlements, we bring you a better option, after the ***news.*** *** REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN for the 2026 Intercompany Long Term Care Insurance Conference! Organizers report: “Our in-person conference March 8-11, 2026 at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, FL is now accepting attendee registrations! As always, our agenda will include numerous educational sessions over two days across seven tracks with ample time for networking and reconnecting with colleagues. We still have room for exhibitors and sponsors! Please contact us at info@iltciconf.org if you are interested in either opportunity to showcase your products and services to our attendees. Everyone who's anyone in Long Term Care Planning will be there. What about your company?” Damon and I will be there to work and cover the conference, respectively. See you then. *** *** LTC CLIPPINGS are a daily feature we bring to Center for LTC Reform premium members. Steve Moses tracks the news and analysis bearing on LTC issues of all kinds. He cites the source, pulls a representative quote, and gives his interpretation of important articles, reports, and news items. To join the Center and get access to our LTC Clippings, LTC Bullets, LTC E-Alerts and our members-only website, go to https://centerltc.com/support/index.htm or contact Damon at 206-283-7036 or damon@centerltc.com. In the meantime, here’s a sample LTC Clipping highlighting an article by today’s Guest LTC Bullet author Elizabeth New. 7/16/2025, “Estate recovery is fair — if Medicaid is for the needy,” by Elizabeth New, Washington Policy Center Quote: “The American Medical Association (AMA) recently voted to oppose a federal requirement that says states must seek to recover long-term care (LTC) Medicaid costs from the estates of deceased beneficiaries. That’s bad advice from the AMA and implies that states are doing a good job with estate recovery efforts. They’re not. … Stephen Moses, a longtime advocate of estate recovery and president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, has argued for years that strong recovery policies promote personal responsibility and discourage Medicaid gaming. He’s right. Pretending that all estate recovery is punitive or unjust ignores the fact that the real injustice lies in allowing people with means to use a safety net they do not need. The AMA's vote of opposition sends the wrong message, and lawmakers just missed a cost-saving beat in their big bill. Medicaid is not an inheritance-preservation program. It is a last-resort lifeline. Federal and state lawmakers should not be shamed for treating it that way.” LTC Comment:
Hearty thanks to Elizabeth New of the Washington Policy Center for this
spot-on article. She is a tireless advocate for sensible LTC financing
policy. For more on the topic, read my 1988 study for the USDHHS Inspector
General titled “Medicaid
Estate Recoveries.” Most of its recommendations, including mandatory
estate recoveries, became federal law in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation
Act of 1993. *** LTC BULLET: A BETTER SOLUTION FOR WASHINGTON THAN WA CARES LTC Comment: Elizabeth New, nee Hovde (her former byline) is Director of the Center for Health Care and Center for Worker Rights at the Washington Policy Center, a free market oriented think tank in Washington State. We’ve cited her analysis and criticism of WA Cares in LTC Clippings at least six times in the past year. She indicts Washington State’s LTC entitlement program as insufficient, mismanaged, and unfairly structured, placing an undue burden on taxpayers. Today Ms. New brings us a broader perspective on her thinking about Medicaid’s and WA Cares’ roles in long-term care service delivery and financing. Here’s how she introduces today’s LTC Guest Bullet: Elizabeth New: A funny thing happened on the way to WA Cares. As I studied Washington state’s new, mandatory long-term care program — which distorted the private insurance market, has solvency issues, will offer limited help to only some workers and taxes low-income earners to subsidize those with no need for public aid — I learned about the even more concerning burden Medicaid Long-Term Care is placing on taxpayers. The following policy paper, written for Washington state lawmakers, is the result of that deeper investigation. It proposes reforms to Medicaid Long-Term Care that can preserve the safety net for people in true need, while protecting taxpayers from a program that has been stretched beyond its design. My analysis draws on key insights from industry experts, including the foundational work of Stephen Moses. I invite you to read, “Strengthening a safety net requires reforms to long-term care through Medicaid.” Introduction Washingtonians are living longer. More people are — and will end up — using long-term-care services to help them with activities of daily life. Some people need financial help with long-term care, which state and federal taxpayers generously provide through Medicaid. Other people finance long-term care with private resources and have no need for taxpayer dependency. Many others have savings and investments that could be used for long-term care but instead have taxpayers pay for their long-term care, while protecting money and assets to pass onto their heirs. Inadequate eligibility requirements and low pursual of estate-recovery measures make this easier to do. Medicaid is the primary payer of long-term care (LTC) services in the nation and Washington state, and LTC funding makes up 20% of Washington state Medicaid spending. Keeping up with the financial demands to come from an increased number of people relying on taxpayers for long-term care requires changes to eligibility requirements and estate recovery measures attached to the safety net. Key Takeaways
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