U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says regulators are coming up with ideas for keeping the new federal worksite long term care (LTC) program stable.
Sebelius, a former Kansas insurance commissioner and former president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Kansas City, Mo., talked about the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) component of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) today at a briefing organized by the Washington office of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
The CLASS Act program can help provide security and dignity for Americans with severe health problems and disabilities, Sebelius said, according to a written version of her remarks provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
“That said, President Obama and I have also recognized that the CLASS statute wasn’t perfect,” Sebelius said. “Many of the changes proposed to the Senate health reform bill that would have improved the CLASS program’s financial stability were not included in the final legislation.”
But Sebelius said she believes the PPACA provisions that created the CLASS program give HHS officials the flexibility and authority to put the program on firm footing for years to come.
THE CLASS ACT
The CLASS Act is supposed to create a voluntary worksite LTC benefits program. Insurance groups and actuaries at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have criticized the program and argued that it will be actuarially unsound.
Budget analysts say the CLASS Act would reduce the cost of implementing the Affordable Care Act up until 2014 but then would add $76 billion to the deficit from 2015 to 2020.
SEBELUS’S IDEAS