One State’s Quest to Introduce Long-Term Care Benefits<br />Eligible adults were to receive $100 a day from the revenue raised by the tax, for up to 365 days — not typically enough to pay the full cost of nursing home care<br />but potentially helpful in keeping less affluent older people from obliterating their savings and ending up on Medicaid.<br />A state, in this case Washington, was working to pass a bill<br />that would institute a new payroll tax to help cover the cost of a much-needed service: long-term care in a nursing home, in a personal residence or elsewhere in the local community.<br />Given that states help pay for Medicaid, legislators are increasingly worried about the growing number of older residents, many of whom<br />don’t even have enough money saved for a comfortable retirement, let alone nursing home bills that can sometimes top $100,000 per year.<br />“The two people who represent AARP here, neither one had darkened my door,” Mr. Johnson said.<br />Medicaid covers at least part of the bill for 62 percent of people who live in a nursing home.<br />“The bill needed too much work, and we had too many questions and not enough answers,” said Cathy MacCaul, AARP’s advocacy director in Washington.
