Kaiser reports report that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks to amend the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) program to keep it solvent for the next 75 years, as required by law. Changes may occur before next October.
The voluntary long term care program helps beneficiaries receive care in their homes instead of in a nursing facility. An excerpt:
Some of the possible changes still being weighed, Greenlee said, include whether to increase the minimum earnings requirement for enrollees, index the premiums for inflation and beef up anti-fraud protections.
The voluntary insurance program is intended to provide a $50 a day cash benefit for the elderly as well as for younger people with disabilities in need of long-term care so they can keep living in their own homes. But the program’s financial stability has been questioned by President Obama’s fiscal commission and others.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said Democrats as well as Republicans are concerned about the program’s sustainability.
