By Jennifer M. McGivney
LTSS Center Co-Director Marc Cohen helped formulate the ideas behind the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act.
It’s an ongoing crisis that affects millions of older Americans and their families: how to pay for long-term care. On April 7, 2025, a conference in Washington, D.C., will highlight the Well-Being Insurance for Seniors to be at Home (WISH) Act, a proposed solution to this crisis.
The WISH Act is a bipartisan effort championed by Representatives Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and John Moolenaar (R-MI). It combines both public- and private-sector involvement.
“What if we have an insurance program where everyone pays in during their working years, and if they later require long-term care, they’re protected?” asks Marc Cohen, co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, who was among those who formulated the ideas behind the bill. “We can put in place a complete, comprehensive solution whereby individuals take accountability for the more manageable up-front costs through savings, insurance, and/or family help, and the public sector picks up the unmanageable costs, those that are truly catastrophic. It’s so much better than the status quo.”
The WISH Act didn’t stumble into its bipartisan support. Compromise, negotiation, and collaboration have been part of the 35-year process. The Long-Term Care Financing Collaborative, Commission on Long-Term Care, and Bipartisan Policy Center, among other groups and individuals, have formed this act.
Two significant contributors have been Cohen and Georgetown University Professor Judith Feder, who worked together to fine-tune the proposed solution based on broad recommendations from The Long-Term Care Financing Collaborative. Cohen and Feder—who often stand at opposing sides of the philosophical continuum regarding the roles of government and the private sector—assembled ideas and processes that would appeal to a range of people who demand a better way for Americans to approach long-term care insurance.
“Judy and I have great respect for each other,” Cohen says. “We know the issue. We’re not ideologues. We were just two people who were deeply committed to solving a problem.”
Learn more about the WISH Act’s creation on the Gerontology Institute of UMass Boston blog.