The Spokesman-Review: Aging population needs Washington state’s attention December 10, 2014
The Spokesman- Review writes:
As Washington awaits the release next week of Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed 2015-2017 budget, and how it will fund another big increase in education spending, a coalition of labor, management and advocates is sounding an alarm about a future challenge: the Age Wave.
An aging population has only begun to impose its infirmities on the state’s Medicaid programs for long-term services and supports, or LTSS. In the current budget biennium, Washington will spend $1.8 billion on LTSS, about 6 percent of state spending. Medicaid pays 62 percent of all those bills, with families and the few with long-term care insurance picking up the rest.