Legislatively Speaking
CLASS (Act) Is Over
The Obama administration has halted a long-term care program
that was included in the 2010 health care reform law. U.S. health
officials said after 19 months of analysis, they could not come up
with a model for the so-called CLASS Act that keeps it voluntary
and budget-neutral.
"We do not have a path to move forward," said Kathy Greenlee,
assistant secretary of aging from the Department of Health and
Human Services.
"Everything we do to make the program more (financially) sound
moves us away from the law and increases the legal risk of the
program."
Under the law, workers would have begun enrolling in the program
after October of 2012. The program was to have been voluntary, with
participants required to pay into it for at least five years before
qualifying for benefits.
According to the AARP, a nonprofit group that represents those
over the age of 50, 70 percent of people age 65 and over will need
long-term care services at some point in their lifetime, and
Medicare does not cover such care.
