title: The CLASS Act: is it dead or just sleeping?
abstract: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) established a voluntary public insurance program for long-term care: the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. In October 2011, the Obama Administration announced that the program would not be implemented because of the high risk of fiscal insolvency. Under the legislative design, adverse selection was a major risk and premiums would have been very high. This article discusses several CLASS Act design and implementation issues, including the design features that led to the decision not to implement the program: the voluntary enrollment, the weak work requirement, the lifetime and cash benefits, and the premium subsidy for low-income workers and students.
authors.affiliation: RTI International, Washington, DC 20005, USA. jwiener@rti.org
authors.forename: Joshua M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wiener
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006078:Government Programs; D033161:Government Regulation; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007353:Insurance, Long-Term Care / Q000191:economics; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000191:economics; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016730:Program Development; D012112:Residential Facilities / Q000191:economics*; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000191:economics