WA Cares Will Provide Me With Stroke Support If The Unexpected Happens
A few years ago, Christina experienced what it’s like to suddenly become a full-time caregiver to a loved one. Her 63-year old mom was healthy one day and needed stroke support and round-the-clock care at home the next. They paid for her care through garage sales and fundraisers. Christina had to leave her career to become her mom’s caregiver.
Christina knows she will need home care at some point in her life. “If… you don’t become the caregiver, you are likely going to be the one needing care,” says Christina. But if she experiences a stroke like her mom, WA Cares will provide her with stroke support. It will pay for home care, medical equipment, and more.
“A lot of people have this mentality, it’s just not going to happen to me.
-Christina Keys, Vancouver, WA
Let me tell you from personal experience, if you are not a caregiver now, the likelihood of you becoming a caregiver is very high.
My mom was an aerospace engineer. She was a healthy active 63 year old when she had a debilitating stroke. We had to have garage sales and gofundme’s and I had to leave my career to care for my mom.”
With WA Cares, Christina will get the care she needs and her family won’t have to sacrifice a career or their savings.
Christina submitted the following testimony to The Washington State Legislature:
My mom was only 62 when she had a life-changing stroke. My mom was healthy and strong, she worked as an aerospace engineer for Boeing and had really good insurance and a pension.
When we got home from the hospital, we were shocked to find out that private health insurance doesn’t cover long-term care services like help with dressing, bathing and meals. Neither does Medicare.
In fact, we found out Medicare will only cover one piece of equipment every 5 years….so what are you supposed to do when you need a hospital bed, a wheelchair and a ramp in your home all at the same time?
I had a great career in tech, so between us we had savings – we thought we’ll be fine. Well, within a year and a half we had drained both our 401K’s, we had to sell our homes, and start having garage sales and gofundme campaigns to be able to pay for care.
Bottom line, you are left high and dry if you don’t have a private long-term care insurance policy that you continue to pay expensive premiums on every month, even after you retire.
WA Cares will provide affordable, flexible benefits for working Washingtonians to help pay for the costs of long-term care services.
And if a family member cuts back their hours at work or leaves their job like I had to do to care for my mother, you can even use your WA Cares benefits to pay them.
“This $36,000 from WA Cares – we’ll be able to use that to pay for a ramp, a hospital bed. That’s money that doesn’t have to come out of your savings. That money will help you stay at home where you want to be.”
-– Christina Keys, Vancouver, WA
Most people don’t realize 23% of the workforce is caregivers. There are 53 million unpaid caregivers in the U.S. The reality is, most of us will end up either being a caregiver or being the one needing care [source].
Right now, we have people dying in their homes without the care they need. People are having to leave their good paying jobs to care for loved ones – they’re losing their homes, and going into poverty to get onto Medicaid.
The WA Cares Fund is a giant step in the right direction.
My name is Christina Keys and I am a caregiver for my mother and my ex-boyfriend and I live in Vancouver, Washington. In 2013, March 16th, my mom had a live-altering stroke out of the blue, she was very healthy. So I had to leave my job.
I remember the first time I finally felt comfortable going on vacation again. I remember constantly calling, calling, you know, “mom,” you know, “are you OK?” Checking with the caregivers. And they finally had to tell me – they finally had to tell me, like “we’re OK, stop calling us.”
But my mom’s caregivers, not only do they care for her so she can be safe, they also give her a way to socialize and feel joy and they’re not harping on her, like I am, you know, “take your medications,” all this other stuff. But they’re also able to give me my life back too. Without the caregivers, I wouldn’t be able to have a job. I went for five years without really working because I was caregiving for mom. So what these caregivers are doing is not only benefiting my mother, but it’s benefiting me.
So when I go to retire, if something happens to me before that, who’s gonna take care of me? I don’t have a daughter. You know, I don’t have um, a boyfriend anymore. My boyfriend had a stroke at 55.
Let Us Know How WA Cares Will Help Your Family
Learn more about how The WA Cares Fund is providing stroke support to Washingtonians.