A long-term project of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, his primary legacy in the Affordable Care Act, has also been a primary target of Republicans, because they hate good ideas that come from legendary liberals. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, or CLASS, was included in the ACA, but the administration now says
it won't be implemented.
Officials said Friday the long-term care program has critical design flaws that can’t be fixed to make it financially self-sustaining.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told Congress in a letter that she does not see a viable path forward at this time. By law, implementation of the program was contingent on Sebelius certifying it financially sound.
The program was supposed to be a voluntary insurance plan for working adults regardless of age or health. Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers, and could collect a modest daily cash benefit if they became disabled later in life.
The problem all along has been how to ensure enough healthy people would sign up.
This was envisioned as a voluntary long-term care insurance plan, giving people the security of knowing that if they or a family member became disabled by illness or accident, there'd be an insurance plan for them to fall back on. Since it would have been a voluntary program, the concern was that only people who would need the insurance, or thought they would (that old problem of adverse selection) would enroll, and revenues wouldn't be adequate to cover all enrollees.
Sat Oct 15, 2011 at 1:23 PM PT: The CBPP's Paul N. Van de Water has a good statement on what this means and doesn't mean. While the traditional media has been reporting this as a major piece of the law not being implemented, it isn't a core part of the law and won't really make a difference in the implementation of it.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ announcement today that her department has not been able to design a financially self-sustaining CLASS program within the law’s boundaries is sad but not surprising. It does not, however, eliminate the need for new protections against the costs of long-term care. Nor does it have any bearing on the health coverage expansions and other core provisions of health reform.[...]
CLASS aims to fill a serious need — protection against the costs of long-term care — and that need certainly has not gone away or shrunk. Long-term supports and services remain inadequate and unaffordable for many people. HHS should now explore a full range of options for developing a successful long-term care program, including but not limited to possible legislative improvements in CLASS. Unfortunately, repeal of CLASS could lead to pressure for alternative approaches to subsidizing long-term care costs that, like earlier proposals, add to deficits and debt.
Finally, today’s report has no bearing on the ACA’s health coverage expansions and other core provisions. The provisions that expand health coverage are completely distinct and separate from CLASS. Whatever the future of CLASS, the ACA will still extend health care coverage to over 30 million people who would otherwise be uninsured and, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, will not increase the deficit.