The Washington Post came out against the CLASS Act today. In an editorial,The Post wrote this about the proposed national long-term care insurance program: "There are already enough risks and uncertainties in health reform. Long-term care is an important topic, but it is one that deserves more careful scrutiny than has taken place in the context of the broader health-reform [...]
The CLASS Act, the proposed national long-term care insurance program, is included in the latest compromise health bill introduced today by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). This version of the bill has now been endorsed by all 60 Senate Democrats, including several, such as Nebraska's Ben Nelson, who had previously vowed to oppose the health measure if it included CLASS. Another [...]
The politics of the CLASS Act, the proposed voluntary government long-term care insurance program, are getting nastier. Critics have taken to calling it a Ponzi scheme, comparing it to Bernie Madoff, and ripping it as a massive new unfunded government spending program. Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) called it "a whole new entitlement program" which it certainly is not. I've raised concerns with CLASS [...]
When I was caring for my parents, I thought what I was doing was both the hardest thing I had ever done and the most rewarding. Now, an important new study suggests I was not alone. The study, called Caregiving in the U.S., is an important snapshot of what life is like for those providing assistance to aging parents, as well as young adults [...]
The CLASS Act, a proposal to create a national long-term care insurance system, remains alive in the Senate health bill, but its fate remains far from certain. On Friday, the Senate actually voted 51-47 to drop the plan from its health bill. But, thanks to Senate rules that required 60 votes to approve the change, CLASS remains in the measure. Most troubling, [...]