“The White House conveniently failed to notice the program’s problems during the health care debate. But last fall, the president’s own fiscal commission officially called for a total repeal of the program. At this point, even Obama’s top health care officials won’t stand behind the program’s worthless fiscal design. ‘While the law outlined a framework for the CLASS Act,’ Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told members of Congress in February, ‘we determined pretty quickly that it would not meet the requirement that the act be self-sustaining and not rely on taxpayer assistance.’ Whoops!”
“The law’s spending path depends on making providers pay for all the future Medicare shortfalls. But since no one can force health-care providers to show up for work, short of a health-care provider draft this reform ultimately cannot succeed. The House Republican path, on the other hand, would make a sum of money available to each senior to choose among competing private plans—much the way Medicare Advantage provides insurance today for about one out of every four Medicare beneficiaries.”