HHS deletes CLASS from the pages of ObamaCare (updated)

A couple of days ago, the headlines read, "CLASS is removed from the health care reform bill." CLASS was an insurance policy against hard times. Folks voluntarily paid into the plan in return for a promise of $50 a week as supplemental income in their old age. The program was supposed to save nearly half a trillion dollars over the course of the coming decade.

Kathleen Sebelius, head of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Problem: it was nothing but a ponzi scheme by the Feds. For starters, there was no guarantee that YOU would receive anything. Secondly, the program reached "solvency" when 220 million people signed up for the scheme - about 60 million more workers than exist in this country.

And why did the program fail? Because it was not mandated.

Think "ObamaCare." If the Supreme Court rules against the mandated aspect of ObamaCare, the program cannot succeed for the same reason CLASS has failed before getting off the ground. A social reform program that is all inclusive can only exist via "mandate." Social Security is such a program. It is 17 trillion in the hole, but it is mandated, so it continues. Medicare is 38 trillion in the hole, but it is mandate, so it, also, continues. ObamaCare without the mandate will not be so lucky. And thank God. We can ill afford any more "fully funded" free programs.

The news of the CLASS termination is reported here:

On October 14, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was suspending implementation of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program.

Mandated by the health care reform law, the CLASS program was intended to be a consumer-funded, voluntary long-term care insurance program that would cash benefits for eligible beneficiaries. The program would have been available for active workers who were at least 18 years old; enrollment in the CLASS program would be voluntary, although employers could automatically enroll employees with monthly premiums deducted via payroll (subject to opt-out rights). To implement the CLASS program, the Secretary of HHS was required to develop at least three “actuarially sound” benefit plans that would remain solvent for 75 years, one of which would be designated as the final “CLASS Independent Benefit Plan” by October 1, 2012.

In suspending the CLASS program, HHS cited actuarial and solvency impediments as the reason why they had “not identified a way to make CLASS work at this time.” The full report sent to Congress is available here, along with the Secretary’s cover letter. There is no indication if HHS will restart work on the CLASS program in the future.

Editors comments: note that no mention is made of the fact that the program was impossible, from the beginning. As pointed out in our comments above, the program needed more people than existed, to be viable. I believe that this is the larger problem for Obama Care, as well.

Update; Tuesday the 18th:

1. From this ObamaCare debacle we learn that Kathleen Sebelius is not a simple mined stooge in the Obama White House. My apologies to Ms. Sebelius.

2. We were reminded in this mornings new, of Harry Reid's claim that CLASS was "fully paid for, decades and decades into the future." Turns out that was simply a lie.

3. And the most shocking updated information of all is the report that the economic genius overseeing the past three years of "financial success" (that is how the Dems refer to the past three years. Seriously) has released a memo taking issue with Sebelius' decision. Her analysis is off track and mistaken. Such is the declared decision of Mr. "I don't need no stinking economic course" Obama.

I have predicted from the beginning, and I am a lowly carpenter slash political analist, that ObamaCare would collapse under the weight of its own financial malfeasance. In this story, I see the beginnings of an abiding confirmation of my suspicions. he he he.

Oh, btw, it wasn't a misspelling. It was a joke.