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The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act

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INTRODUCTION: On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in Law. The health reform law establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living services supports known as the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Program (CLASS ACT). The CLASS program is designed to expand options for people who become functionally disabled and require long-term services and supports, including home care, adult day care, or a stay in a nursing home. In exchange for paying premiums during their healthy, working years, people would get a daily cash benefit to help defray the costs of these forms of assistance. The CLASS program was made effective on January 1, …show more content…

You can also use CLASS to pay part of the cost of assisted living or nursing home care. Under CLASS you would be required to pay a monthly premium. If your employer participates in the program, you will be automatically enrolled unless you choose not to participate. The premiums would be deducted through your payroll.

The importance of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is undeniable, because it will transform the American healthcare landscape. In considering the extent to which health care will change in the next decade, however, one must recognize the dichotomy between passing legislation and executing policy. Although PPACA offers possibilities for drastic shifts in American healthcare policy, questions surround the plan’s actual implementation and financial sustainability. The “demise” of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act serves as one example. Although this issue was downplayed in Washington, D.C., and discussed minimally in the media, I believe it is of critical importance.

A substantial component of the 2010 PPACA, the CLASS Act, was a voluntary, government-administered program open to all working Americans. It would have provided a basic lifetime benefit of at least $50 a day (indexed to inflation) in the event of prolonged physical

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