The CLASS Act

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act is
currently in both the House and Senate healthcare reform bills. Its
purpose is to increase access to long-term care.

The CLASS Act would create a voluntary long-term care and disability
benefit for workers. Panelists at a briefing on January 5, 2010 state
that more actions need to be taken to overcome problems facing the
field. Those panelists agree the bill benefits the long-term care field
but they suggest other ways to improve the industry as a whole.

One of the panelist identified the need for expanding the long-term care
workforce and providing increased education and training. Another
panelist stated there should be additional funding available for
existing programs to strengthen the relationship between family
caregivers and formal caregivers.

Supporters of the Act state that it will help seniors and the disabled
pay for things such as in-home caretakers all while supposedly lowering
the federal budget deficit. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says
that over the first decade the CLASS Act would lower the federal deficit
by $72.5 billion. Others state that the CBO used some creative math to
come up with that "savings" and that after the first decade of the
program, costs would actually increase.

The CLASS program is voluntary and open to all Americans and various
government analysts estimate that 2-6% of those eligible will sign up
for the program. CMS' analysis of the CLASS provision in the House bill
finds that there is a significant risk that the CLASS program will
become unsustainable and is at risk for failure. CMS calculated that
the CLASS program's premiums could initially be as high as $180 a month.

James Firman, President and CEO of the National Council on Aging, has
countered the critics in a letter to the Wall Street Journal stating
that there are several safeguards within the CLASS Act to guarantee that
the program is solvent over a 75 year period after the addition of an
amendment of Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) that the critics fail to mention.
He states that few understand that the program would be self-funded,
would promote personal responsibility, would create a new private
supplemental market and would prohibit taxpayer dollars being used to
pay for benefits. Firman says that the CLASS Act also has the potential
in health reform to bend the Medicaid cost curve downward.

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