Advocacy

By Cathy MacCaul, AARP Washington Advocacy Director

Changes to the new WA Cares Fund also include allowing employees who live out of state and certain other groups to apply for exemptions. And the program, which was initially set to begin this year, will launch in mid-2023.

The 2022 legislative session led to a significant win for Washingtonians nearing retirement. More than a million near retirees are now eligible for benefits under the WA Cares Program.

Reject Big Pharma Lies and Help Protect Washingtonians from High Rx Costs

AARP Washington is zeroing in on legislative priorities involving fair drug pricing and in-home care services.

The WA Cares Fund is a long-term care insurance benefit designed to help residents stay in their homes as they age. Workers pay in and later can tap the fund for services like home-care aides.

Undaunted by COVID-19 and the challenges it created, our elected officials spent this 90-day legislative session weighing the pros and cons of bills in a virtual environment. Even though this was a highly unusual period in Olympia politics for the legislature and advocates, AARP Washington persisted and secured victories that increase consumer protections, improve healthcare, and promote financial resiliency.

In just over a year, more than 2,600 residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in Washington state have died of COVID-19. While the ongoing vaccination rollout offers hope, we must seek improvements to care. Chronic problems that plagued nursing homes pre-pandemic—like infection control and understaffing—remain and may have worsened.

HB 1218 seeks to protect residents by implementing common-sense solutions

The past year was a tumultuous one, with older adults caught in the crosshairs of a global pandemic that laid bare several issues that must be immediately addressed through state legislation. As you read this article, the 2021 90-day legislative session is off to a running start. On behalf of our more than 900,000 members across the state, AARP Washington is committed to improving outcomes in several issue areas important to Washington’s older adults and their families.