Last week, the Obama administration announced that the Affordable Health Care Act will no longer cover the cost of long-term, in-home services for individuals unable to care for themselves. This part of the Act was known as the Community Living Assistance and Supports (CLASS) program. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services dropped CLASS from the legislation after it learned the program would exceed the spending limitations set forth in the Act. These limitations hold that any program implemented by the Act must remain fiscally solvent and pay for itself for at least 75 years.

CLASS was to be funded by workers who agreed to sign up for the program and pay premiums on it. If too many people chose to opt-out of paying those premiums at any given time, the program would struggle to stay afloat financially. Experts believe the loss of CLASS will create heavier Medicaid-related burdens on the federal government.

Susan Dentzer, Health Affairs editor-in-chief for PBS’s NewsHour, offered some insightful commentary on the CLASS program and its fate: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/10/what-the-death-of-the-class-act-means-for-long-term-disability-care.html