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, [...]
The CLASS Act, the plan to create a national voluntary long-term care insurance program, is now included in both the House and Senate versions of health reform. So that means it will pass this year, right? Not so fast. There once was a time when provisions included in both the House and Senate versions of a bill were almost certain [...]
Pity the supporters of the CLASS Act, the proposal to create a national long-term care insurance system. They are on to an important idea, but they are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Here's the problem: much of the congressional support for the CLASS Act is based on the Congressional Budget Office estimate that it will generate [...]
The national long-term care insurance program called the CLASS Act will be included in the Senate Democratic leadership health reform bill that is expected to be released within the next day. The decision by Democratic leader Harry Reid to add CLASS to the bill is a huge victory for backers of the measure, which is already in the House-passed bill. However, many [...]
In a Nov. 13 report, Chief Medicare actuary Rick Foster estimates that the CLASS Act--the proposed national long-term care insurance program--faces "a significant risk of failure" because few would buy the coverage, and those who do would likely have high long-term care expenses. This phenomenon, called adverse selection, would drive up the cost of premiums and further discourage healthy people from buying coverage. The study will [...]
I spent today with the New Hampshire legislature's long-term care caucus and a group of stakeholders as they wrestled with the challenges of expanding the state's Medicaid home and community based care program for the elderly and adults with disabilities. Thanks to a kind invitation from State Representative Kate Miller, who chairs the caucus, AARP executive vp John Rother and I were able [...]
John Mills, who cared for his dad for six years, has started a nice new website filled with practical tools and information for caregivers. You can find it at http://www.ecarediary.com/ For those caring for parents, this is one worth checking out.