Enacted as a part of the healthcare reform law in March 2010, the CLASS Act was to be a government-run long-term care insurance program.  On October 14, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced that the CLASS program is being suspended because after 19 months of study, the Department cannot identify a way to make the program work.  From the beginning there were bipartisan concerns that the program was financially unsustainable.

NAIFA President Robert Miller issued the following statement in response to the announcement:  “NAIFA applauds the Obama administration’s decision to abandon the unsustainable long-term care insurance program called the CLASS Act.  NAIFA supports the goal of achieving financial security to cover long term care services.  However, we believe there are better ways to help people plan for their long-term care needs including the offer of quality insurance products at their place of employment.”

This marks another big win in 2011 for NAIFA as it works to undo problematic pieces of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).  NAIFA will continue its push forward to keep agents in business.