Two bills concerning WA Cares failed to receive hearings this legislative session, meaning they’re dead. That was not unexpected. They were the two bills that wanted to help workers see a return on their forced investment or let some workers out of the program. (Read more about them here in, “Legislation would help WA Cares be less bad for some.”)

Another two pieces of legislation have a chance to move forward and should. One is agency-request legislation, Senate Bill 5291, which cleans up some messy provisions in WA Cares. The other, Senate Joint Resolution 8201, proposes a constitutional amendment for voters to consider to allow funds gathered for WA Cares to be invested in more promising ways for eventual program beneficiaries. 

Lawmakers would be wise to pass them. WA Cares needs all the help it can get. Higher investment earnings and a way to include more workers who are paying into WA Cares with every paycheck could provide some.

SB 5291 would change an eligibility provision in WA Cares that says you aren’t eligible for a benefit someday if you take a five-year break from formal work, even if you need long-term care and even if you paid 58 cents or more to the WA Cares Fund on every $100 you earned during most of your working years. I have been urging this change for years, as the eligibility provision excludes many of the very caregivers we’re told WA Cares is here to help. People caring for disabled or aging family members often take five or more years away from formal W-2 work, as do parents caring for children.

The proposed constitutional amendment that's still alive would allow voters to weigh in on whether the state has the expanded investment ability that many lawmakers were counting on when they hatched this payroll-tax-funded program. Better investment returns could help WA Cares pay its way, which would be great news for everyone who is being forced to fund this program that they might be eligible for one day. 

Lawmakers should also see to it that WA Cares can't raid the general fund if it ever gets in trouble, as the program for Paid Family and Medical Leave has done. There are about 500,000 workers who opted out of the gamble that is WA Cares, many of whom have been investing in their own long-term-care planning since before WA Cares became a thing.