WA Cares Fund: What you need to know

Let’s talk about a tough reality of life: Unless your name is Jean Claude van Damme, you are not invincible. Most of us non-high-kicking humans will need some form of care as we age. Or if we get sick, or injured.

According to a study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, four out five people over the age of 65 will need some form of long-term support and services. And those services can be very expensive.

Washington is the first state in the country to build a program meant to alleviate some of the potential costs of care.

WA Cares is a fund designed to give workers in Washington access to coverage for long-term care when they need it. And while the first distributions are a few years away, the payroll tax to fund the program kicks in on Saturday, July 1. And it hasn’t exactly had a smooth path to get to this point.

Soundside gets into the nitty gritty of how this social insurance fund will work, and how it came to be with WA Cares director Ben Veghte.

You can listen to the entire conversation in the audio above.