There will be a one year delay for the implementation of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, according to an update from the Congressional Budget Office.
The CLASS Act, a long-term care plan that is a part of the Affordable Care Act, was supposed to start collecting premiums starting in 2012, and that has now been postponed to 2013.
“Based on the pace of implementation actions thus far, CBO now estimates that the program will begin collecting premiums in fiscal year 2013, lowering projected offsetting receipts (whereas, for the March baseline, CBO assumed that those collections would begin in fiscal year 2012),” the report states.
The program’s viability has faced considerable scrutiny, and Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted it was “totally unsustainable” in a Senate Finance Committee earlier this year.
In July 2011, a bipartisan Senate group proposed to eliminate the program completely as part of the debt deficit reduction effort.
View a copy of the report.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
