House votes to repeal chunk of Obamacare
February 14, 2012 by Christian SchappelPosted in: Health care, In this week's e-newsletter - benefits, Latest News & Views
The Republican-controlled House has voted to repeal a highly controversial part of President Obama’s healthcare reform law. Will the Senate do the same?
Probably not, despite a House vote of 267 to 159 to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act (CLASS), which was included in Obama’s overhaul of the nation’s healthcare system.
The final tally in the House wasn’t entirely across party lines, as 28 Democrats joined their Republican counterparts in voting for CLASS’ repeal.
While Obama administration officials have admitted the program won’t work as presently constructed, they have said they’d like to see it restructured rather than scrapped completely.
Republicans have said this is one step toward their ultimate goal of dismantling the entire healthcare reform law.
This House vote has looked inevitable since Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced this past fall that HHS was unable to find a way to make the program financially solvent.
But Democrats’ opposition to killing CLASS makes it unlikely a measure to repeal the act would be taken up by the Senate, let alone gain the approval of the White House.
Troubles with the law
CLASS was supposed to set up a voluntary insurance program to help the elderly and disabled pay for long-term care expenses. Enrollees would be required to pay monthly premiums into the program for least five years before being able to receive cash benefits to pay for long-term care expenses.
The HHS determined that unless a large number of healthy people enrolled in the voluntary program, premiums would soar, leading to dwindling participation rates and, in turn, more benefits payouts than premiums collected.
Tags: Class, Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, House, Obamacare
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February 15th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
The Health Care Reform Law may need fine tuned but it shouldn’t be scrapped all together. Our health care system is a mess with too many falling through the cracks. Republicans shouldn’t be looking to scrap it all just because it wasn’t their idea.
February 15th, 2012 at 4:20 pm
The republican proposal was about 1 page long and something to the effect of “cut health care costs by cutting health care costs and getting the government out and letting free markets solve the problems”.
February 15th, 2012 at 4:32 pm
@Cindy agreed. I’m not saying that healthcare reform as we know it now and will come to know it better in the future that it is what it is cracked up to be. I think much of the blame for this monstrosity of legislation goes to the republicans. They had the opportunity to address the problems of our healthcare system during the first 8 years of the millenium, but failed to do so because it was working fine for the rich and upper class so they did not want to mess with it. Now that the democrats have gotten hold of it, they are crying foul. So, if there are any people that need to share a great deal of the blame, the repubs need to look in the mirror and point at it.
February 15th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
As a person who has looked into the cost of long term care for my aging parents and discovered its not feasible for middle class families and coming to the realization that our parents will have not choice but to move in with one of us when they are no longer able to care for themselves, I agree that while it may not be the whole answer, at least it is a move in the right direction. Lets not scrap the whole thing but instead work with what we have and try to make it better. Our parents are counting on us, and one day, our kids will be counting on to have resolved this. Things are not getting any cheaper. We can’t afford to pay for services for our parents now. This plan implements a planning process encouraging people to put aside for that rainy day. If we can just keep the greedy from taking over, we might be able to get some where. Lets work together to make it better.
February 16th, 2012 at 10:04 am
@H2r Don’t deliberately negatively spin (misstate) others words by paraphrasing a quote or a document and then use quotation marks. Quotation marks indicate your writings are an exact quote. I know you have an agenda and are trying hard to belittle your your opponents, but it reflects more poorly on you. It is a form of lying.
February 16th, 2012 at 11:47 am
@Common – Sarcasm, Sheldon…get a life!
February 16th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
@common – Oh and be sure to use an apostrophe to show possession when you write “others words” and don’t forget to proofread your work so you don’t repeat “your your” words when you criticize other’s words, it shows a lack of intelligence and that your words aren’t worth reading once, let alone a second time. I know this little blog site means the world to you and you love to share your all-to-common insights with everyone but forgive me if I belittle you by continuing to ignore you.
February 16th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Cindy says “Republicans shouldn’t be looking to scrap it all just because it wasn’t their idea.”
They are not looking to scrap it beacause it wasn’t their idea. They are looking to scrap it because the idea does not work. Sebelius and the administration even admit it will not work. 27 clear headed Democrats also realized the same and voted to scrap it.
February 16th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Yes, I make grammatical mistakes. Yes, I admit them. I am only human. My mistakes are grammatical errors of ommission and carelessness as I am often pressed for time.
You however have repeatedly misrepresented others positions, deliberately fed mis-information, all while attacking and trying to “belittle” the people you disagree with. “It show a lack of” human dignity. It is now clear that you have no intention of apologizing for your lies and no intention in ceasing your behavior, but I will call you out when you do.
I do have one question. I am confused, How are you ignoring me by repeatedly responding to me?
February 18th, 2012 at 2:40 pm
Are you children done fighting on the message board now?