Paradoxium
Making Your Head Explode
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2002
- Messages
- 22,485
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 31
HHS report recommends closing Obamacare program
Last month, Congressional Republicans issued a report detailing how the Obama administration ignored warnings that the program was unsustainable in the rush to pass the national health care law. Shortly after this, the program's actuary announced he was leaving and said the office dealing with the program was to be shut down. HHS later issued a statement insisting the office hadn't been closed, while acknowledging that it had been downsized and that whether the program gets implemented remains an "open question."
One reason why the Obama administration has been reluctant to officially shut down the program is that it was one of the main accounting gimmicks they used during the health care debate. Because the CLASS Act was supposed to collect five years of premiums before paying out any benefits, the Democrats have been claim $80 billion in short-term surplus from the program as deficit reduction, ignoring the obvious fact that the money would eventually have to pay for benefits. It's been called a "budget zombie."
Here's the detailed HHS report prepared concluding that the CLASS program couldn't work. One of the fears raised is that if it were implemented and failed, it would be problematic to shut down.
"(W)e conclude that there is substantial uncertainty about what would follow if solvency or legal problems prevented the CLASS program, once operational, from continuing to implement the plan," the report reads. "We cannot with any confidence predict that the CLASS program would beable to honor its commitments to individuals who had already enrolled or entered beneficiarystatus in the program, or avoid leaving them worse off, or that such individuals would be able torecoup their paid premiums."