WASHINGTON (AP) -The Senate is expected to introduce a new long-term care health insurance program to help the elderly and medically disabled avoid nursing homes. The legislation which is likely to be introduced by the Senate Majority Leader is supposed to offer a voluntary long term care program possibly tomorrow.
The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, or CLASS Act as it is called was one of Senator Kennedy’s most important issues. This act is necessary in much the same way as Medicare became necessary as it will help alleviate the financial strain on the elderly.
Of course the main gripers of the bill, the conservatives are likely to question the sustainability of such a program and of course the Long Term Care industry is fiercely opposed to it as it is quite a lucrative field for them.
The Health Reform bill passed by the House last week does contain the program which is endorsed by the Obama team. The Senate version of the health reform bill ended up omitting it when the Senate Finance Committee removed it. The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to seperate the premiums that the Long Term Care program would bring in as they could not be added into the offset of the entire bill.
As of 2009 the average nursing home cost a whopping $70,000 per year and a home health care aide was charging an industry average of $29. These are both exorbitant numbers and they are typical of the industry practice of everyone putting their hand into the pot. Medicare which does offer some Long Term Care only covers the temporary nursing home stays and in order for a middle class family to qualify they would need to wipe out their savings to qualify for Medicaid which would foot the bill for the difference.
Much like Medicare, the proposed bill would collect premiums during the insured’s working years, and upon disability should it occur a cash benefit could be elected of $50 that could go towards a home health care aide, or for nursing equipment, or adding handicap accessible features to a home, or finally to pay for a nursing home, or in the case of this bill defray the costs which would literally equate to an hour and a half of a home health care aide.
The first question that comes to mind is, what Home Health Care Aide gets $29 an hour? These are low skilled workers who basically help feed, clean, and assist those that can’t take care of themselves. Most of them are not even Registered Nurses!
The Congressional Budget Office has claimed that the program could be financially solvent (unlike Medicare) over a 75-year-period with no additional tax payer money. These numbers use a monthly premium of $123 and a $75 benefit, and would allow workers to elect the coverage through their employer if they wanted it. Premiums and benefits would be adjusted for the CPI every year.
The Senior Lobbying groups of course support this, but why wouldn’t they as seniors would receive benefits with no premiums as the benefits would be funded by current workers! This would be a free gift to our nations elderly who already enjoy the best health care in the country at the cost of the young who don’t get Medicare.
Critics’ concerns got validation recently from a report by Medicare economists who are expert in long-range cost estimates. In a report issued last weekend, they said a voluntary insurance program is likely to attract people who expect they’ll need the coverage. Without taxpayer subsidies, premiums would keep going up, discouraging healthy people from signing up and triggering an “insurance death spiral.”
“Individuals with health problems or who anticipate a greater risk of functional limitation would be more likely to participate than those in better-than-average health,” the report said. “There is a significant risk that the problem … would make the CLASS program unsustainable.”
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