Congressman touts bipartisan long-term care bill at DC event

A bill that would establish a long-term care (LTC) insurance plan at the federal level has been reintroduced in the House of Representatives. Its chief sponsor has received bipartisan support and is hitting the road to communicate its potential benefits to constituents.

Last month, Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) reintroduced the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act, which would amend Social Security to provide long-term care benefits for program participants. The bill’s co-sponsor is Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.).

In an effort to get the word out, Suozzi held an event in Washington, D.C., earlier this month to describe the plan to constituents.

The event included “over 100 healthcare experts, insurers, elder advocates, caregiver organizations and policymakers from across the aisle to address America’s looming long-term care crisis,” Suozzi’s office said.

“There’s a storm coming,” Suozzi explained in a prepared statement. “Every day, 10,000 Americans turn 65, and in five years, 6,500 Americans will reach 80 every single day.

“Our nursing homes and Medicaid system cannot deal with this. We don’t have enough nursing home beds, we can’t afford it, and seniors would prefer to age at home.”

The act would seek to create a new public-private partnership between the federal government and the insurance industry, according to the text of the bill. It would establish “a monthly federal benefit for Americans who become disabled in old age, after a 1- to 5-year elimination period based on income,” Suozzi’s office said.

Within that period, potential beneficiaries would be required to rely on private insurance programs or “personal resources” with a two-pronged goal: to provide coverage for those with the greatest determined need, and to “create new incentives for private insurers to offer affordable long-term care products.”

The legislation would “establish a federal catastrophic long-term care insurance program, designed to help disabled seniors age with dignity in their own homes — while reinvigorating the private long-term care insurance market,” Suozzi’s office said.

So far, Suozzi and Moolenaar are the only sponsors in the House. But Moolenaar described what led to his support for the measure.

“What I like about the WISH Act is that it really tries to engage a lot of stakeholders,” he said. “To me, that’s a win-win because we want to make sure our seniors are getting the best care possible. We want to make sure people don’t have to choose between poverty and losing all their life savings and they can’t qualify for different care.

“We want to make sure that individuals who don’t have families who can take care of them have a place and can be provided for,” he added. “This really is common sense, it’s bipartisan, it’s something that encourages people to do the right thing.”

According to Suozzi’s office, the organizations that have voiced support for the bill thus far include the National Council on Aging, the American College of Physicians, American Geriatrics Society, the National Alliance for Caregiving and Genworth Financial.

Suozzi previously introduced a version of the WISH Act in mid-2021, but the bill never garnered a co-sponsor and did not progress beyond committee referrals during that session.