Obama Administration Pulls Part Of Healthcare Law

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is pulling the plug on a long-term, home-care program included in the 2010 healthcare reform law that Republicans have derided as a budget trick.

U.S. health officials said on Friday that after 19 months of analysis, they could not come up with a model for the so-called CLASS Act that keeps it voluntary and budget-neutral.

“We do not have a path to move forward,” Kathy Greenlee, assistant secretary of aging from the Health and Human Services department and administrator of the program, said in a call with reporters.

“Everything we do to make the program more (financially) sound moves us away from the law, and increases the legal risk of the program.”

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/14/obama-administration-pulls-part-of-healthcare-law/

[ClarkUSA]

1. It was too expensive for most Americans due to the estimated limited interest in long term care

Most younger and middle-aged Americans would not be interested in paying for long-term care insurance, making it expensive for those who would.

Estimated costs per year were over $70/per year for nursing home care and $17,000/per year for in-home care, according to the New York Times front-page news article right now.

[jaxx]

2. The CLASS Act and Good Government

The CLASS Act and Good Government

—By Kevin Drum
| Sat Oct. 15, 2011 8:55 AM PDT

<..> This is how we all want government to work. And it turns out that Obama agrees. This is apparently how he wants government to work too, and it's a pretty clear demonstration that Obama isn't the kind of hyperpartisan extreme lefty that conservatives like to paint him as. He's a guy who wants government to function well and honestly, and if it doesn't, he's willing to shut down a program that doesn't work even though it upsets his own party and provides campaign fodder to his opponents. When was the last time a Republican president did anything like that?

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/10/class-act-and-good-government