Fed LTCi Plan Dead

WASHINGTON (Reuters), 10/14/2011 – The Obama administration is pulling the plug on a long-term, home-care program (CLASS) included in the 2010 health care reform law.  The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program was designed to give the disabled and elderly cash to receive care at home instead of usually more expensive institutional care.  

Under the law, workers would have begun enrolling in the program after October of 2012, after the HHS set the program’s benefits. The program was to have been voluntary, with participants required to pay into it for at least five years before qualifying for benefits.  The Congressional Budget Office said the program would start to lose money after the first decade or two, once benefit payments exceeded income from premiums.