Benjamin W. Veghte, PhD, MPA, is director of long-term care financing at the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS). He supports states across the country as they consider how to finance long-term care, through practical guides, working sessions, and technical assistance informed by lessons from Washington State and from long-term care systems at home and abroad. He also contributes to CHCS’ broader portfolio of projects focused on improving care and services for older adults and people with disabilities.

Ben has extensive experience in long-term care financing across national policy and state government. From 2020 to 2026, he was founding director of the WA Cares Fund at the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. In that role, he shepherded the first universal long-term care insurance program in the United States from blueprint to full implementation in 2026 and led design refinements that strengthened adequacy, solvency, and benefit portability. Prior to his Washington State service, Ben was vice president for policy at the National Academy of Social Insurance, where he led a research and policy portfolio that included universal long-term care design, paid family and medical leave, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. He has also served as research director at Caring Across Generations, director of policy and research at Social Security Works, and executive director of the Scholars Strategy Network at Harvard. He began his career in Europe as assistant professor of political science at the University of Bremen, where he taught comparative social policy in German and English and co-founded the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences. He also consulted for the European Commission on social protection. Ben’s comparative analysis of long-term care systems includes recent publications on the Netherlands and Germany, drawing on primary research in both countries. He serves on the board of directors of the American Society on Aging.

Ben holds a doctorate in modern European history from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University, including a year of study at Oxford University.

Outside work, Ben enjoys traveling with his family, learning languages, and kayaking and hiking with his family and dog Finn.