A legislative proposal, Senate Bill 9082, entitled New York Long Term Care Trust Program, was made in New York to address the issue of long-term care insurance through a mandatory payroll tax. The bill was not enacted, but it signals a willingness to consider a fundamentally new approach to this issue.

Currently, those with a long-term custodial illness such as Alzheimer's disease are left to fend for themselves, with few options. Under this proposal the cost of treatment would be shared by almost all workers. The state of Washington has already enacted a long-term care payroll tax (WA Cares Fund) and the New York bill is modeled after it.

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New York Long Term Care Trust Program

The payroll tax collected would be put into a long-term care trust fund. Eligibility would not be subject to an income and asset test like Medicaid. There would be no medical examination and no exclusion of coverage for preexisting conditions like private long term care insurance.