The news for critical long-term care services and supports provided by the states--either through Medicaid or other funding--keeps getting worse. The toxic combination of a still-slow economy, huge structural budget pressures on all levels of government, and growing demands for aging and disability services is leading to ongoing cuts in both critical benefits to individuals and payments to providers. The latest evidence comes from [...]
Senior Obama Administration official Richard Frank says he is "cautiously optimistic" that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can build a viable government sponsored long-term care insurance program under the CLASS Act. CLASS is a national, voluntary long-term care insurance system that was included in the 2010 health reform law. Frank, a highly respected professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School, is Deputy Assistant [...]
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairs of President Obama's deficit reduction commission, have called the CLASS Act "unsustainable" and are proposing that it be either reformed or repealed. They say the national voluntary long-term care insurance program passed as part of this year's health reform law "is viewed by many experts as financially unsound." The first version of the Bowles-Simpson [...]
It is a tough time to try to sell long-term care insurance. The private market was stunned on Nov. 11 when MetLife, one of the nation's biggest carriers with insurance on 600,000 lives, announced it would stop selling new policies. At the same time, surveys by two of the nation's most respected long-term care researchers suggest why it will continue to be very [...]
In a Washington Times column yesterday, two Heritage Foundation researchers argued that the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act is a trillion dollar government bailout waiting to happen. The CLASS Act is a national voluntary long-term care insurance program that was included in the new health care law. And to listen to the authors, you'd think CLASS will [...]
Medicaid long-term care is well on its way to destroying state budgets, according to a new study by the international consulting firm Deloitte LLC. By 2030, according to estimates by the firm's Center for Health Solutions, Medicaid long-term care benefits for both home and nursing facility care will absorb a staggering 18 percent of total state budgets if current trends continue. Overall state [...]
Nice to see President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius beginning to talk about the CLASS Act--the voluntary national long-term care insurance program that is included in the new health law. But unfortunately, even at a town hall yesterday at a senior center, CLASS was little more than an afterthought for the Administration. Sebelius discussed the new program only in response [...]
Private long-term care insurance got a nice boost from a new study by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The report, by the consulting firm LifePlans Inc, concluded that nearly 98 percent of those filing claims against their LTC policies received benefits, despite articles by The New York Times and others suggesting that claims denials are widespread. The study also [...]
A new model from the SCAN Foundation and the consulting firm Avalere Health concludes that premiums for a national voluntary long-term care insurance program similar to the newly-enacted CLASS Act would average about $115-a-month. The study concludes that a mandatory long-term care insurance program could provide identical benefits for one-third the cost, or about $40. Premiums would vary by the buyer's age and increase by inflation over time. The CLASS [...]
The new health law creates, for the first time, a national, voluntary long-term care insurance system called the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. Participation will be optional, but if you enroll, you'll get a basic cash benefit for life to help pay for personal assistance if you are disabled or very frail and unable to care for [...]