Lawmakers have reintroduced two popular, bipartisan long-term care bills that have had trouble becoming law.
Rep. Thomas Suozzi, D-N.Y., joined Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich, to revive the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act.
Bipartisan teams have introduced new versions of the Credit for Caring Act in both the House and the Senate.
The bill, which has strong backing from AARP, would provide a tax credit of up to $5,000 to offset families' caregiving expenses.
Reps. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, and Linda Sánchez, D-Calif., along with Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., continue to lead the effort to pass the bill.
What it means: The long-term care bills arrive as members of Congress and the administration of President Donald Trump are fighting fierce, intensely partisan battles over protecting existing tax breaks and funding for federal programs.
The bills could be dead on arrival, but they could surface, at least for committee hearings, if hearing organizers are looking for topics that can encourage Republicans and Democrats to talk to each other.
WISH Act: The WISH Act program would use payroll tax payments to pay about $3,600 per month in benefits after a covered individual needed long-term care services for a long period of time.
The length of the waiting period would vary with income. The waiting period could range from 12 months for someone with average monthly earnings at the 40th percentile up to five years for someone with average monthly earnings in the top 1%.
An earlier version of the bill, introduced in 2021, died in committee.
Suozzi has said he has hoped his bill could help revive the private long-term care insurance market, by giving insurers an opportunity to sell affordable LTCI policies that would help consumers get through the waiting period before WISH Act program benefit payments started.
"Right now, very few people have long-term care insurance," Suozzi said Tuesday during a conference call about the bill introduction.
The Credit for Caring Act: The caregiving credit bill would provide a credit that would be adjusted for inflation.
The credit would phase out for individual filers with modified adjusted gross income from $75,000 to $125,000 and for joint filers with MAGI from $150,000 to $200,000.
Caregivers who received the credit could use it to pay for respite care, counseling, training, participation in support groups, caregiving-related travel costs, caregiving technology and compensating for wages lost due to documented caregiving needs.
Lawmakers have been introducing similar bills with the same name since 2015, during the 114th Congress.
The U.S. Capitol. Credit: Christian Hinkle/Shutterstock
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