Obama administration kills a major program in the health care reform law .... the CLASS ACT

[Better Believe It]

Obama pulls plug on part of health overhaul law
Associated Press
October 14, 2011

The Obama administration Friday pulled the plug on a major program in the president's signature health overhaul law — a long-term care insurance plan dogged from the beginning by doubts over its financial solvency.

Targeted by congressional Republicans for repeal, the long-term care plan became the first casualty in the political and policy wars over the health care law. The program had been expected to launch in 2013.

"This is a victory for the American taxpayer and future generations," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., spearheading opposition in the Senate. "The administration is finally admitting (the long-term care plan) is unsustainable and cannot be implemented."

Known as CLASS, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program was a longstanding priority of the late Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Read the full article at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/14/ap/health/main20120670.shtml


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White House kills CLASS
by Sarah Kliff
Washington Post
October 14, 2011

Late Friday afternoon is the golden hour for making announcements that you hope won’t get much attention. The news coming out of the Department of Health and Human Services right now is no exception: The Obama administration has halted work on health reform’s Community Living Assistance Services and Support, or CLASS, Act after finding it too difficult to implement.

The action stands to reduce expected revenues from the health reform law by $86 billion, as well as raise questions about why the provision was included in the health reform law to begin with.

What’s most damaging about the decision are the larger implications for the health reform law. The pullout is expected to reduce the projected budget savings of the Affordable Care Act -- when the Office of Budget Management issues the president’s 2013 budget -- by approximately $86 billion. The health reform law will still generate $127 billion in revenue, administration officials say, but that’s a big notch down from the original estimates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/white-house-kills-class/2011/10/14/gIQA15zWkL_blog.html


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Obama administration halts part of heath care law
By Msnbc.com's Tom Curry
October 14, 2011

The Obama administration announced Friday that it has suspended one piece of the landmark health care law which the president signed last year.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told Congress in a letter that the CLASS Act, which was supposed to provide a new voluntary long-term care insurance program, was unworkable since no actuarially sound way could be figured out to run the program.

“I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time,” Sebelius said in her letter.

One of the Republicans who led the opposition to the CLASS Act, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said Friday, “The administration is finally admitting the CLASS Act entitlement is unsustainable and cannot be implemented. Simply setting aside the program for the near-term is not enough. Repeal is the only solution to ensuring American taxpayers will not be on the hook in the future for this disastrous entitlement.”

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/14/8325174-obama-administration-halts-part-of-heath-care-law

[TheWraith]

1. Because they determined it couldn't be made self-sustaining.

But I'm sure you'll ignore that to try and make it Obama's fault.

[nichomachus]

7. The real fault

was with Obama offering a watered down version of Richard Nixon's plan and then caving on half of that.

[slipslidingaway]

9. And what made the administration believe in this fairy tale ...

because they needed the revenue for the CBO score to sell the ACA to the people and headlines for the corporate media.

And Obama blocked any discussion of a not for profit HC system all the while knowing it was the best plan, as he stated years ago.

How many people will die and how many people will lose their homes due to medical bills because he gave into the for profit system.

Pretty disgusting.

:(

[Bobbie Jo]

10. Guaranteed.

He/She wouldn't bother posting otherwise.

[slipslidingaway]

12. CBO Releases Numbers On House Health Care Bill : Reduce Deficit by $104 Billion

...so where did that reduction come from, it appears a large portion (72 billion) is due to this new long term care insurance, aka CLASS.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/slipslidingaway/199

This is important, unless the headlines meant nothing when the bill was being debated.

Generating revenue to cover the plan's cost over the 10 year period...bottom of page 7 in the CBO report. While the program itself sounds good, notice how this new piece reduces the deficit by 72 billion in the 10 year window.

Nice way to reduce the cost for Now.

The headline news was that this bill would reduce the deficit by 104 billion...

[cherokeeprogressive]

13. Please tell me what took so long for it to be determined that "it couldn't be made self-sustaining".

Then tell me who wrote the bill. I remember Rep. Pelosi saying it had to be passed so we'd know what was in it or something to that effect.

I'm thinking "read the bill" wasn't such a bad idea after all.

[AverageJoe90]

2. I do hope this can be revived after the election.

[ThomWV]

3. Well, they said "after finding it too difficult to implement" they quit. Isn't that something

maybe if we had different people working on it they might not find the work so hard they could not accomplish it.

[rhett o rick]

4. So did we get something in return for the compromise?

Yeah, you guessed it.

[DJ13]

5. This is why HCR needed to be paid through taxes

Mandates and voluntary purchases are a clusterfuck.

[Octafish]

6. Anything that Ted Kennedy wanted we don't want and can't have.

Like universal health care.

And affordable housing in our later years.

Even if we could afford it, it's too Liberal.

:sarcasm:

[SugarShack]

11. Ted Kennedy wanted?? Carter maintains that Kennedy blocked healthcare!

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/jimmy-carter-we-would-have-had-comprehensive-healthcare-now-had-it-not-been-for-ted-kennedy/

Jimmy Carter: ‘We’d Have Comprehensive Healthcare By Now If Not For Ted Kennedy’
In 2008, an ailing Senator Ted Kennedy gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention that focused, in part, on the political issue closest to his heart: health care. “This is the cause of my life,” he said, adding that he hoped one day soon, “will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American—north, south, east, west, young, old—will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.”

But according to former President Jimmy Carter, Kennedy himself is to blame for Americans’ lack of coverage. In a new interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, Carter claims that Kennedy deliberately blocked health care legislation the then-President proposed in the late ’70s.

“The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy’s deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed,” he says. “It was his fault. Ted Kennedy killed the bill.”

Carter and Kennedy were political rivals; Stahl even calls Kennedy Carter’s “nemesis.” In the diary he kept while in the White House—which Carter has adapted into a new book that’s being released on Monday—Carter made frequent, disparaging mentions of Kennedy, writing sentences like this one: “Kennedy, continuing his irresponsible and abusing attitude, immediately condemned our health plan. He couldn’t get five votes for his plan.” Carter believes Kennedy shot down his health care bill simply out of spite: “He did not want to see me have a major success in that realm,” he tells Stahl.

snip...
sounds like not much has changed on either side

[Octafish]

14. True: Their antagonism broadened the gulf. Here's the guy I most blame, though...

Operation COFFEECUP - How Reagan Worked to Stop Universal Health Coverage in 1961

[slipslidingaway]

8. This is very significant because it played a major role in funding HC ...

then again it was a promise of paying for something today and then working people told it was just IOU's, similar to the SS Trust fund that has 2.6 Trillion dollars invested in the general budget.

"...The action stands to reduce expected revenues from the health reform law by $86 billion, as well as raise questions about why the provision was included in the health reform law to begin with..."

Without this provision the CBO score would not have looked so good and the ACA would have been a harder sell to the American people, just look at the original CBO projections based on collections today and promises tomorrow. All the while the Obama administration blocked any discussion of a national HC system for all.

And the administration finally wakes up that this was not a viable plan!

:(


The Class Act could not be removed, it is a major component of saving...
the government 132 billion over 10 years.

Collect revenues now for a program that people will not need until some future date.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=75780&mesg_id=75905


Generating revenue to cover the plan's cost over the 10 year period...bottom of page 7 in the CBO report. While the program itself sounds good, notice how this new piece reduces the deficit by 72 billion in the 10 year window.

Nice way to reduce the cost for Now.

The headline news was that this bill would reduce the deficit by 104 billion...

BREAKING: CBO Releases Numbers On House Health Care Bill : Reduce Deficit by $104 Billion

...so where did that reduction come from, it appears a large portion (72 billion) is due to this new long term care insurance, aka CLASS.

While that is something to celebrate, the plan would have people paying in over the 10 year budget window for something they will need in the future, naturally this will be all gains until people start drawing from the fund. For reference this is shown on page 26, Table 3 of the CBO report.

It reminded me of the SS Trust Fund that was pre-financed and helped to reduce the deficits, especially during the Clinton and Bush years...]/b]

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/slipslidingaway/199