With the clock ticketing on increasing the debt ceiling, is there a chance something major could happen from a Senate proposal that would include repealing the CLASS Act, the new federal long-term care insurance program? If CLASS is repealed, what is the next step the governerment is going to look at related to the LTC Financing Crisis?
Politico (7/20, Haberkorn, Dobias) reports, "The bipartisan proposal to end the debt-limit crisis that was seemingly gaining traction on Capitol Hill and at the White House Tuesday would look to cuts and reforms in health care spending to save more than $200 billion." The proposal "unveiled by the Senate's newly revived 'Gang of Six' would pay for a complete overhaul of the flawed Medicare physician payment formula, erase a long-term-insurance program created under last year's health reform law and enact medical malpractice reform." Politico says that it "calls for the repeal of the health reform law's CLASS Act." Several "Republicans question whether it is actuarially sound, and even Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said the program's premiums and benefits most likely would need to be recalculated."
Link to more information (Kaiser Health News) -- http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2011/July/19/pres-and-new-plan.aspx
Gang Of Six Deficit Plan (Executive Summary) -- http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/July/19/executive-summary-gang-of-six-plan.aspx
Comments