Health overhaul law suffers first major casualty

[loco]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration's signature health overhaul law, under relentless assault by Republicans, has suffered its first major casualty — a long-term care insurance plan.

The program, expected to launch in 2012, had been dogged from the beginning by doubts over its financial solvency.

Proponents, including many groups that fought to pass the health care law, have vowed a vigorous effort to rescue the program, insisting that Congress gave the administration broad authority to make changes. Long-term care includes not only nursing homes, but such services as home health aides for disabled people.

"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 long-standing priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass.

Although sponsored by the government, it was supposed to function as a self-sustaining voluntary insurance plan, open to working adults regardless of age or health. Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers and could collect a modest daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled later in life. The money could go for services at home or to help with nursing home bills.

But a central design flaw dogged CLASS. Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it, eventually requiring a taxpayer bailout.

http://news.yahoo.com/health-overhaul-law-suffers-first-major-casualty-080351059.html

[Soul Crusher]

Straw and blacken? 

[Soul Crusher]

Obama opposes repeal of healthcare program suspended last week
By Julian Pecquet - 10/17/11 01:51 PM ET
 
President Obama is against repealing the health law's long-term care CLASS Act and might veto Republican efforts to do so, an administration official tells The Hill, despite the government's announcement Friday that the program was dead in the water.

"We do not support repeal," the official said Monday. "Repealing the CLASS Act isn't necessary or productive. What we should be doing is working together to address the long-term care challenges we face in this country."

Over the weekend, The Hill has learned, an administration official called CLASS Act advocates to reassure them that Obama is still committed to making the program work. That official also told advocates that widespread media reports on the program's demise were wrong, leaving advocates scratching their heads.


Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday in a blog post on the liberal Huffington Post web site that the administration did not see a way to make the program sustainable. Sebelius indicated her agency hadn't been able to figure out a way to ensure the program providing long-term care paid for itself as required by law.

Later in a call with reporters on Friday, an HHS official said work on the program was being suspended.

"We won't be working further to implement the CLASS Act … We don't see a path forward to be able to do that," Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee told reporters on Friday.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, said Monday that repealing the program would not add to the deficit, making Republican repeal efforts that much easier.

The Obama administration sold the healthcare law with the argument that it would lower the nation's long-term health costs, and the CLASS Act was an important reason why.

CBO had scored the long-term care program for people with disabilities as saving the nation $86 billion in spending over 10 years. That's about 40 percent of the health law's $210 billion in total estimated deficit reduction over the next decade.

In a new blog post, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf clarified that last week's decision by the Obama administration not to implement the program means those savings are now moot. Because the program is not being implemented, Elmendorf said a repeal bill would not be estimated as saving money.

"Following longstanding procedures," Elmendorf wrote, "CBO takes new administrative actions into account when analyzing legislation being considered by the Congress — even if it has not published new baseline projections. Beginning immediately, therefore, legislation to repeal the CLASS provisions in current law would be estimated as having no budgetary impact."

New baseline budget projections due out in January, Elmendorf wrote, "will assume that the program will not be implemented (unless there are changes in law or other actions by the administration that would supersede Friday's announcement)."

In the Senate, John Thune (R-S.D.) has a bill to repeal the CLASS Act that has attracted 32 Republican cosponsors. In the House, Charles Boustany (R-La.) has a similar bill with 48 cosponsors, including Democrat Dan Lipinski of Illinois.




Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/187949-white-house-opposes-formal-class-act-repeal








ROTFLMAO! ! ! ! ! 


Obama = most ignorant moron ever to hold public office.