Health care overhaul includes 'game-changing' long-term care coverage

[babylonsister]

Health-care overhaul has provisions that will help disabled with long-term care

By Diane Stafford | The Kansas City Star


The young mother who becomes paraplegic after a wreck. The soldier who returns home with a severe head injury. The middle-aged woman with early dementia.

They, like millions of Americans, need long-term health care.

But few can afford it.

That's where a little-discussed part of the massive Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the national health care reform package, comes into the picture.

Buried in the law is Title VIII, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, or CLASS, one of the earliest programs scheduled to go into effect — on Jan. 1, 2011.

CLASS is designed to give workers a consumer-financed national insurance pool to help pay for long-term care, either in their homes or in care centers, when they're disabled enough by age, disease or injury to need it.

"It's a game changer," said Larry Minnix, president of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, who advocated for the concept for years.

more...

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/18/1885967/health-care-overhaul-has-provisions.html

[ChicagoSuz219]

1. There's a LOT of great things in it that nobody ever mentions. n/t

[impik]

2. Yep. It's a very good bill, that sadly our side helped give it a bad reputation

[denimgirly]

7. Compared against the rest of the world ... not so much.

America's health care is grotesquely far behind the rest of the world but at least it finally entered the 19th century. So relative to what Americans have been use to then yes it is a good bill for people, pharma, and the insurers.

[cornermouse]

3. Baloney. Its another shell game.

Moving it from government funded, as it currently is, to insurance company funded. God knows how people who are already disadvantaged are going to pay for this.

I personally knew people in Kansas who were paid by the government to go around to people's homes and clean the house, cook a meal, run errands for them, as far back as the early 70s; possibly the 60s. I repeat the government paid for it. No purchase of insurance was required.

[babylonsister]

4. Tell that to Larry Minnix, who might have a better grasp of the facts

regarding the benefits that go along with HCR than you do. You just don't want to like anything about this bill, and that's been obvious for awhile now.

[cornermouse]

5. Mr. Minnix is saying what he's been told to say.

My grasp of HCR is better than yours and my statement above is based on personal friendships and knowledge of people I knew at the time they were working those jobs.

HCR is a financial and democratic party disaster that is currently working its way down pipes. I do not consider that a positive thing.

[msongs]

11. lol you are obviously a "hater" if u disagree with health scare reform w/NO price regulation that

is a corporate welfare giveaway.

All those new patients forced to buy into a plan sold by corporations who would rather you die than spend any money keeping you alive.

Msongs

[zipplewrath]

6. You did read this part right?

"Mountains of implementation details are yet to be delivered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And benefits won’t begin to flow for at least six years.

CLASS is envisioned as a supplement to Medicaid or private savings. If it works, people who pay premiums into a long-term care insurance fund could get $50 or more a day for such care.

Preliminary estimates for the premiums range from $50 to $120 a month (although subsidized premium rates are available for students and low-income workers set by law at $5).

With the average cost of a nursing home in the United States running about $200 a day, many patients are forced to exhaust their savings and spend down their assets to become eligible for Medicaid coverage.

Health care experts point out that many disabled people would prefer to remain in their homes and receive services there.

The average hourly cost of a home health aide visit in Kansas City is about $20, and a few hours a day might help people avoid an institution, but Medicaid doesn’t pay for this.

“The essence of the bill, from a consumer standpoint, is that a cash benefit would follow the person and not the institution,” said Rodney McBride, who follows the issue at John Knox Village, the elder-care service and residential center in Lee’s Summit.

“That’s a significant change from today. CLASS will allow individuals to use funds to receive the type of services they need at the location they need it — in their homes or institutions,” McBride said.

The success of CLASS depends on how much the premiums will cost and on how many and who invests in the insurance fund. That success is not a given."


This is alot of hope that there will be some change. The rules haven't been written, the costs are unknown, and it's success is in question. The concept is fine, I already have such insurance. This just makes it available through medicaid. This is hardly a "game changer", it's an incremental improvement and, right now, no one even knows how much.

[ChicagoSuz219]

8. Those government programs are state-run & only available to...

...those who meet all specific requirements re: age, disability, etc.

This is something you can choose to purchase, or not. For many, it will be the difference between being able to live at home or going to an Assisted Living facility or nursing home, which is much, much more expensive.

The jobs you mentioned are more like housekeepers; this is more like practical nursing - bathing, dressing, etc.

[cornermouse]

10. The key word is "purchase".

People in that position are not likely to be able to purchase anything like that. People already get practical nursing. Go look in your phone book under home health care services. They already exist.

[ChicagoSuz219]

13. It's just another option...

...they can check prices, services, etc. & see what works best for them.

When my Mom had home healthcare it was $800/month. Maybe this is cheaper.

When did you become spokesman for the 'people'? I must've missed the memo.

[still_one]

9. Another cut which is being kept very quiet is the reduction in flexible spending plans for health

care. It will be reduced from 5000 to 2500, and a lot of working families are going to be hurt by this

[joeglow3]

14. DING DING DING DING

This fucking pisses me off. Obama has now wiped out my Making Work Pay work and included me in the Rich 5% who will see tax increases.

[Clio the Leo]

12. Kick. NT

[joeglow3]

15. What is the cost of this?

I had heard it mentioned BEFORE the bill was passed. Originally, it was going to be $1,500 withheld from EVERYBODY's paycheck, with the ability to opt out. Is that still the case? If so, when will they begin to withhold the money?