The nation’s long-term care system has struggled for many years, and those constraints are expected to deepen as our nation ages. In 2019, Washington State became the first in the United States to pass legislation that would enable a public state-operated long-term care insurance program, the Washington Cares Fund. We conducted research with the goal to identify concrete ways for Washington State to implement this fund so that it is accessible to all and it supports living-wage jobs for care workers. In this report, we discuss our research methods, we present personas of individuals seeking long-term supports and services from the Washington Cares Fund, and we offer a list of recommendations that, while intended for Washington State, we see as applicable to other states that will embark on offering similar long-term services to residents.
The New Practice Lab interviewed Black and Latinx workers that lost their job or income due to COVID-19 and their experience navigating UI. They synthesized their findings in this report, discussing how compounding inequities that exist in the unemployment insurance system make it less accessible for workers of color.
