The Washington Post came out against the CLASS Act today. In an editorial,The Post wrote this about the proposed national long-term care insurance program:
"There are already enough risks and uncertainties in health reform. Long-term care is an important topic, but it is one that deserves more careful scrutiny than has taken place in the context of the broader health-reform debate."
This editorial is very disappointing. While it rehashed many of the concerns that I and others have raised about premium costs and the number of people likely to participate in the voluntary insurance program, it copped out. Rather than suggesting ways to improve CLASS, it merely suggested Congress abandon the effort and come back to it another time. Well, thanks.
The Post also failed to note that, despite the flaws of CLASS, allowing people to buy insurance to help cover their long-term care costs would be a vast improvement over the status quo, where middle-class people spend all of their financial assets and then go onto to the welfare-like Medicaid program.
It would have been far more constructive if The Post could have joined me and others and proposed an alternative. Just saying no at this point in the debate is not helpful to those needing care or those of us caring for our parents.
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