Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., on Wednesday asked for the Senate to repeal the CLASS Act, the long-term care program within President Obama’s national health care law that the administration abandoned last month because it was unworkable.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., objected, insisting that the program could still be tweaked to be made sustainable.
Yet last month, the Department of Health and Human Services determined that after a year and a half of trying, it could find “no path forward” for the CLASS Act, because there was simply no way to assure it would attract enough paying participants to make the program self-sustaining. Even though it isn’t being implemented, as of now, the program remains technically on the books.
Thune introduced legislation to repeal it back in April.
“The epic failure of the unsustainable CLASS Act calls the president’s entire health care program into question,” Thune said in a statement. “President Obama’s own HHS Secretary has admitted there is no viable path forward for the CLASS Act and it’s hard to understand why the president would wish to keep this entitlement in law. Instead of allowing this flawed program to sit on the books, Congress should listen to the budget experts who have outlined fundamental flaws with this program and swiftly pass my repeal legislation.
