One Good One Down
by digby
From the "nobody could have predicted" file:
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday that the department is calling for a halt to the implementation of the CLASS Act — a stunning end to the financially troubled long-term care insurance program and a major setback to the health care reform law.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Sebelius said the department did everything it could to find a way to make the program self-sustaining — as the law requires it to be.
But the department’s analysis, she said, concluded that there was no way to do that.
“For 19 months, experts inside and outside of government have examined how HHS might implement a financially sustainable, voluntary and self-financed long-term care insurance program under the law that meets the needs of those seeking protection for the near term and those planning for the future,” Sebelius said in the letter. “But despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time.
”After 19 months of research, "what we've determined is we do not have a path forward," Assistant Secretary for Aging Kathy Greenlee said on a conference call with reporters. The law requires Sebelius to certify that the program would be fiscally solvent for 75 years.
I'm sure that many people are thrilled to see this horrific intrusion on American liberty scuttled. And I'm sure they will be just as thrilled when their geriatric parents and grandparents literally have nowhere to go when they get too sick to take care of themselves.
This was always one of the weak links in the health care reforms. As anyone who has dealt with elderly relatives with serious illnesses knows, the long term care system is rapidly falling apart and nobody wants to deal with it. And as long as we insist on having a health care system run by the profit motive this is going to remain the case.
My advice to young people today is to get a degree in nursing. You're going to need it.
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