Insurance Industry Admits I-2124 will “End” WAshingtonians’ Long-Term Care Benefits

Another insurance expert, this time in the online trade publication InsuranceNewsNet, admits that I-2124 is not as innocuous as its sponsors want us to believe.

“If the initiative passes, I believe this will basically end the WA Cares program by making it financially unfeasible for the State,” admits Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.

I-2124 would leave us at the mercy of the for-profit insurance companies Slome represents. They regularly jack up premiums and deny benefits by 50%, 100%, or even 300% without warning

Under I-2124, Washingtonians with pre-existing conditions like cancer or diabetes (about 50% ) will lose access to the only long term care benefit available to them—because private insurance long-term insurance companies won’t cover them.

With Washington’s long term care plan, once you retire, you no longer have to pay in to receive your benefits. But if I-2124 passes, a 65-year-old retired couple would, on average, need to pay $5,000 to $7,000 a year to keep access to their long-term care benefit with a private insurance company.

As Sloane says, “This could well be one of the more pivotal moments impacting the future for long-term care insurance.”