OLYMPIA – The Senate Health & Long Term Care and Rules Committees approved legislation this week to ensure Washingtonians who pay for private long-term care insurance are able to receive benefits when they need it most.
Senate Bill 5508, sponsored by Sen. Marko Liias (D – Everett), would align state law with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Model Act to ensure the Guaranty Fund will remain solvent in the long term.
“This is an important step to make sure Washingtonians are receiving the private long term care coverage that they have already paid into,” said Liias. “In some cases, folks have been paying into these private plans for decades. This legislation would ensure that they are not hung out to dry if their private plan were to become insolvent.” [watch Liias’ full committee testimony here]
In a 2017 case, Penn Treaty of Pennsylvania’s insolvency caused Washington’s assessments to exceed $200 million to policy holders. While this insolvency was manageable at the time, there are other private insurers facing collapse that could limit the ability of the Guaranty Fund to cover policy holders in the future.
SB 5508 was introduced at request of the Office of the Insurance Commissioner and is now awaiting a full vote of the Senate.
The 2022 Legislative session is scheduled to conclude on March 10.
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