Heritage Foundation: Obamacare's Long-Term Care CLASS Act Unsustainable, Unravels
Monday, September 26, 2011
Inefficient programs that don’t solve problems and are passed against the will of the American people seem to be the Obama Administration’s forte. Now their high-minded aspirations of a health care revolution are quickly unraveling as fatal glitches in Obamacare become apparent.
Next up for implosion? The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, otherwise known as the “CLASS Act,” which creates a government-run long term care insurance program too costly to sustain. At a time when entitlement programs in America have spun out of control, liberal proponents of Obamacare were pushing a new one that had no hope of staying afloat. Now, they are trying hide the fact that they were wrong as another bungling layer of Obamacare is exposed.
From its creation, the CLASS Act was completely unsustainable as written into law. The problem? Due to the effects of adverse selection, the program would charge high premiums that would deter less risky individuals from participating. Indeed, participating in the CLASS program would only appeal to those in poor health expecting to need long-term care in the future, further escalating premiums.
Due to its design, it was clear to Medicare actuaries and even liberal Members of Congress that CLASS would fail before it began. Like so many other aspects of the struggling Obamacare law, this one’s flaws are abundantly clear. Brian Blase explains why the CLASS Act is broken and how its ill-conceived design would lead to its inevitable collapse or bailout:
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