There have been some major changes to Obama’s health care law which have some people very confused.  MSNBC reports that the Obama Administration announced a suspension of one important piece of health care reform.  Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, advised Congress that the CLASS Act (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports), was unworkable since they couldn’t figure out a good way to run the program.  They ideally wanted to keep affordable health insurance for this group of people needing this service, but it’s not looking sustainable.

This particular part of health care reform was designed to provide a new voluntary long-term care health insurance program but there was no viable plan in place to implement the CLASS Act.  The article points out that the CLASS Act was an important part of health care reform since it helped manage the budget according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.  The CLASS Act was a big part of why reform won some votes, causing frustration and confusion for many Congress members.

Medicare’s chief actuary, Richard Foster, sent a memo to Congress in April of 2010 warning Congress that the CLASS Act faced significant risk for failure because sicker individuals would be more likely to sign up for the plan and costs would quickly exceed premiums.  He thought the program would be unsustainable, and almost a year and a half later Congress seems to agree.  They are finding that repeal may be the only solution to ensuring Americans are not paying significantly higher taxes because of the failure of such a plan.

Written by Sam Tabes

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