Is Long Term Insurance Offered in Health Insurance Exchanges? – NO
General Reference (not clearly pro or con)
[Editor’s Note: The original Obamacare legislation signed into law on Mar. 23, 2010 contained a provision intended to offer long term care insurance through the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act or CLASS Act. In Oct. 2011, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius shelved the CLASS Act saying it was financially unsustainable and “We have not identified a way to make Class work at this time.”]
PRO (yes)
Pro
[Editor’s Note: Based upon a neutral reading of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and bi-partisan third party analysis, this question seems to have a clear and obvious Con (no) answer, and ProCon.org has therefore presented the responses in a single column with no opposing perspective.]
CON (no)
Con
The US Department of Health and Human Services, stated on its webpage “Will Long Term Care Insurance Be Offered in a Health Insurance Exchange?” available at the Affordable Care Act website (accessed on Nov. 22, 2011):
“No. Affordable Insurance Exchanges will not include information about long term care insurance.”
Con
Joseph R. Antos, PhD, William H. Taylor Scholar in Healthcare and Retirement Policy at American Enterprise Institute, stated in his July 24, 2012 article “Healthcare Reform after SCOTUS, Hard Decisions Needed to Avoid Health Sector Meltdown,” available at the American Health & Drug Benefits website:
“We have already seen a major component of the ACA fail because it promised more than it could deliver.
The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (better known as the CLASS Act) was a government long-term care insurance program that could not be made financially solvent and was eventually shelved.”
Con
Robert Pear, writer for the New York Times, stated in his Oct. 14, 2011 article “Health Law to Be Revised by Ending a Program,” available at the New York Times website:
“The Obama administration announced Friday that it was scrapping a long-term care insurance program created by the new health care law because it was too costly and would not work.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said she had concluded that premiums would be so high that few healthy people would sign up. The program, which was intended for people with chronic illnesses or severe disabilities, was known as Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, or Class…
Advocates for older Americans and people with disabilities expressed disappointment at the decision, and Ms. Sebelius said Americans still had an ‘enormous need’ for long-term care insurance. ‘At $75,000 a year for a nursing home and $18,000 a year for home health care, most families cannot afford to pay out of pocket,’ she said.”
