Health Care Law Blog
On Wednesday, February 2nd, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure to repeal the CLASS Act. A similar repeal measure is pending in the U.S. Senate.
The CLASS Act is a heavily criticized portion of the health care reform law. CLASS, or Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, is a national, voluntary insurance program that is intended to offer working individuals some protection against the cost of paying for long-term care. Individuals who pay into the program for at least 5 years and who were employed during at least 3 of those 5 years would, if ever needed, receive a daily cash benefit of at least $50 per day to purchase services and support necessary to remain independent. For example, CLASS would cover home health care, adult day care, home modifications, respite care, transportation services, and the like.
Critics of CLASS continuously questioned how the program, which would be funded exclusively through voluntary premiums paid by enrollees, some of which would be as low as $5 per month, could be financially viable. Finally, in October of 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services ("DHHS") reported to Congress that the program, which never really got off of the ground, was unsustainable. DHHS opined that the program would be too costly and that DHHS could not, with any confidence, predict that the CLASS program would be able to honor its commitments to individuals who decided to enroll.
The CLASS Act was intended to account for $70 billion in deficit reduction and offset other costs of the health care reform law. It remains to be seen whether the Senate will follow suit and vote to repeal this controversial program.
