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The health care bill signed into law by President Obama is full of hidden time bombs. One costly provision buried in the lengthy reconciliation bill at the last minute has taxpayers covering long-term at-home care for the elderly. Through the so-called Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act (CLASS Act), Americans will find between $150 and $250 taken out of their paychecks each month to cover this program nobody knew about.

Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, called the program a Ponzi scheme that would produce massive deficits in the future. A letter released at that time by Mr. Conrad and Democratic Sens. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Warner of Virginia warned: "While the goals of the CLASS Act are laudable - finding a way to provide long-term care insurance to individuals - the effects of including this legislation in the merged Senate bill would not be fiscally responsible for several reasons."

Democrats have set aside just $5 billion to fund new high-risk pools for the chronically ill and uninsured until the exchanges are up and running in 2014; the chief actuary for Medicare recently estimated that the money would run out in 2011 or 2012, “resulting in substantial premium increases to sustain the program.” The CBO also recently nearly doubled its initial estimate of the legislation’s implementation costs, to $115 billion over ten years.

Another $5 billion fund set up to offset health-care expenses for early retirees may turn out to be the biggest fiscal problem in the legislation—and eventually transform into a massive backdoor bailout for cash-strapped states. The fund is open to employees from both government and the private sector and is also set to expire in 2014—though the actuary expects it, too, to run out before then. The Obama administration claims that this subsidy will keep private employers offering early retirees health-care benefits, but that’s largely a smoke screen, since relatively few private-sector firms offer early retirement benefits. State and local governments, on the other hand, are hemorrhaging red ink for promises that they’ve made to public-employee unions: a November 2009 GAO report estimated that states and localities had more than $530 billion in unfunded liabilities for “post-employment” benefits, primarily for retiree health care. States like New York and California will undoubtedly leap at the chance to offload their early retiree costs onto the feds, and public-employee unions will push hard to expand funding for the program and make it permanent.

Finally, Congress is likely to pass a bill repealing massive planned cuts for physicians’ payments under Medicare. Current law projects a 21 percent drop in reimbursements, starting on June 1. To secure the American Medical Association’s support for health-care reform, Democrats promised to pass a “doc fix” rescinding those cuts. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that doing so would cost $276 billion over the next decade, nearly twice the savings that the CBO projected for Democrats’ health-care “reforms” over the same period.

FargoBison wrote:Pelosi encourages artists and musicians to become a burden on taxpayers because they will have Obamacare....

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CitadelGrad wrote:That's $150 to $250 per month. Believe it or not, that is very significant for many people. I'm sure with your Appalachian Studies degree, you're rolling in dough and money is no object for you. Unfortunately, some people don't have that much money to burn.

The CLASS Act creates a new national voluntary program to assist individuals experiencing functional limitations. The program would offer benefits in the form of cash payments of at least $50 per day to those who are unable to perform at least two daily living functions or suffer from cognitive impairment that is expected to last for more than a 90-day period.2

The CLASS Act would be funded through voluntary monthly payroll deductions from workers over the age of 18. Premiums, covered by workers, would be based on one’s age and enrollment year and could increase if necessary to support the program.3 The program would automatically enroll workers unless they opted out and includes guaranteed issue for those defined as actively at work. If a worker’s employer did not withhold premiums, an alternate collection mechanism would be established.4

Benefits from the CLASS program would not affect an individual’s eligibility for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or other benefit programs. Additionally, CLASS would not replace traditional private long-term care insurance or Medicaid, but would instead supplement this coverage.5 The cash benefit from CLASS could be used for non-medical expenses. Medicaid recipients residing in nursing homes would be permitted to keep 5 percent of their cash benefit, while those receiving benefits under home and community-based waivers could keep 50 percent of their cash benefit.6