Updated August 7, 2026. Quick answer: if you hold a WA Cares exemption based on private long-term-care insurance, you can give it up — between 1 January 2026 and 30 June 2028. 🔴 Whether you should turns almost entirely on your birth year, not on the premium.
Who this applies to
The window is for people who took the private-insurance opt-out. The state’s own wording: the exemption was open to those “who had private long-term care insurance on or before Nov. 1, 2021” and were approved between 1 October 2021 and 31 December 2022. That exemption is otherwise permanent, which is exactly why a defined window to undo it exists at all.
The window itself, in the programme’s own words: rescission is available “between Jan. 1, 2026, and June 30, 2028”.
🔴 The number that decides it, and almost nobody is shown it
Rejoining does not buy you the headline benefit. It buys you whatever vesting pathway you can still reach:
| Pathway | Requirement | What it pays |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent | “Contribute for at least 10 years” | $36,500, growing with inflation |
| Temporary | “have contributed for at least 3 of the past 6 years” | the same $36,500 |
| Transition | “Born before January 1, 1968 and have contributed for at least one year” | 🔴 “10% of the full benefit amount for each year you contribute (currently $3,650 per year)” |
Read the third row again if you were born before 1968. Rescinding does not put $36,500 in front of you. It puts $3,650 for each year you go on to contribute, against a payroll contribution of 0.58% of your paycheque for those same years.
⚠️ So the arithmetic can run the wrong way for exactly the people the window was opened for. Someone near retirement may pay in for a handful of years and reach a fraction of the benefit, while giving up a private policy that pays regardless of where they live. That is not an argument against rescinding — it is the calculation that decides it.
What your private policy does that the state benefit does not
Two differences do most of the work. The state benefit is capped and the private policy usually is not — $36,500 is a real number but a short one against multi-year care. And a state programme is a state programme: if you retire elsewhere, the calculus changes in a way a private contract’s does not.
Against that, a private policy can raise its premium, and many have — which is its own decision with its own options: what to do when the premium goes up. 🔴 Do not drop a private policy to rescind before reading that page, because how you reduce a policy can forfeit protections you already paid for: the partnership inflation trap.
How to work it out
- Find your birth year. Before 1 January 1968 puts you on the transition pathway and changes everything below.
- Count the contributing years you would realistically have before you stop working, and multiply by $3,650 if you are on that pathway — the vesting pathways in full.
- Price the contribution at 0.58% of pay for those same years.
- Price what you would be giving up, including whether your private policy is partnership-qualified — what partnership status is worth.
The broader question of funding care at all is at whether you can self-insure and the self-insure calculator.
Rescinding is a numbers question, not a feelings question.
If the rescind decision turns on numbers you would rather not guess at — what the transition pathway actually pays at your age, against what your private policy still covers — a matching service will introduce you to fiduciary advisers, and it costs you nothing to compare.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. The matching service is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.
The Kapitalwise form opens here. You stay on this page.
What happens when you press the button
It requests contact details and phone verification by text. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button. Submitting the form does not guarantee an adviser or a match. We sell no insurance and take no money from any long-term-care insurer.
Sources
Rescission window, eligibility dates, vesting pathways, benefit amount and contribution rate: Washington State WA Cares Fund, wacaresfund.wa.gov (exemptions and how-it-works pages), read directly. All read 7 August 2026. General information, not insurance, legal or tax advice on your policy. Your contract and your state’s rules govern.