OBAMACARE FUN FACT #5: SMOKE & MIRRORS: Section 8002 of Obamacare created the CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services & Supports) Program. CLASS was supposed to be a government-sponsored, voluntary long-term care insurance program funded via payroll deductions (with subsidies for low-income enrollees). Enrollees were required to pay into the CLASS insurance for 5 years– a “vesting” period– before they could draw any benefits.
Because of its long vesting period (during which time premiums were collected but benefits not paid out), CLASS was scored as “saving” taxpayers $80 billion– which was more than half of Obamacare’s supposed $143 billion in budgetary “savings.”
Guess what? In October 2011, the Obama Administration admitted what most smart folks had known all along: That the CLASS program was fiscally unsustainable and unworkable. Only sick people with expensive long-term care needs wanted to enroll and pay its hefty premiums. HHS Secretary Sebelius admitted, ““Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time.”
Epic fail.