Obama opposes repeal of healthcare program suspended last week

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Hill

President Obama is against repealing the health law's long-term care CLASS Act and might veto Republican efforts to do so, an administration official tells The Hill, despite the government's announcement Friday that the program was dead in the water.

"We do not support repeal," the official said Monday. "Repealing the CLASS Act isn't necessary or productive. What we should be doing is working together to address the long-term care challenges we face in this country."

Over the weekend, The Hill has learned, an administration official called CLASS Act advocates to reassure them that Obama is still committed to making the program work. That official also told advocates that widespread media reports on the program's demise were wrong, leaving advocates scratching their heads.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Friday in a blog post on the liberal Huffington Post web site that the administration did not see a way to make the program sustainable. Sebelius indicated her agency hadn't been able to figure out a way to ensure the program providing long-term care paid for itself as required by law.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/187949-white-house-opposes-formal-class-act-repeal

[tblue]

1. Oh good!

Sure hope it's not repealed. My gosh, what are people supposed to do if they need long-term care? Most of us will, if we are lucky enough to live a long time.

[msongs]

2. ooops missed yet another chance to call for medicare for all or single payer instead. nt

[TomCADem]

5. Blame Democrats, Give Republicans A Free Pass!

[Freddie Stubbs]

7. What are the chances of Congress passing such a plan?

[panzerfaust]

3. Gee - I guess he just did not want to come out and say that last week?

The weakest president since Millard Filmore?

[wordpix]

10. well he did say he needed our help to make things happen & I guess he heard us

so let's keep making noise

[Dont call me Shirley]

4. WTF is "might veto" leaving the elderly homeless?

[mvd]

6. I can only hope that this more forceful President Obama..

carries this attitude into his second term. He should have started at single payer and compromised further left if needed. It is the right tactic to embrace the Occupy Movement. I am proud of what the movement has accomplished, and hope it grows and grows. If I were Obama I'd forgive some debts (student loan and mortgage for starters), halt foreclosures, and start prosecuting the people who committed fraud and got us into this mess.

[lynne]

8. That's great BUT he's going to need to make the numbers work -

- to bring it back to life. The reality is that the CLASS Act can't be sustained as written. If he can find a way to change it, then he needs to do it now.

IMO, he's merely expressing regret as an act of reassurance. Unfortunately, that and a hill of beans will still get you nothing unless he finds a way for the program to sustain itself.

[wordpix]

9. he can't make the numbers work without Medicare for all - we need healthy people paying into

any insurance system to help cover the sick and elderly.

Don't worry---the young and healthy will be sick and elderly, too, in a few short decades so they will get theirs, too.

Trust me, as someone who is dealing with an elderly parent with Alzheimer's disease for 4 years---there is no way to cover all the costs alone, unless you are extremely wealthy and/or in a position to care for your elderly parents without having to work (wealthy again). We need a NATIONAL program to cover the costs---otherwise the Alzheimer's epidemic plus other diseases (cancer, etc) are going to bring US to our knees and we'll never get up.

People are commonly living into their 80's and 90's and thus prone to dementia and other diseases that were less common when they lived to 75. We need Medicare for all NOW before it's too late and our streets and hospitals are deluged with homeless sick and elderly.