Two Changes in the Budget Agreement that Affect Long-Term Care

The budget agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff included two key measures that could matter to people who receive long-term supports and services.  The first repeals the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act and the second creates a new national commission to develop a plan to better finance and deliver long-term care services. 

The Obama administration had already abandoned the CLASS Act so the repeal of the act was not surprising.  And unfortunately, the commission seems like it will end up being more like a classic congessional study that does not actually make any changes. The commission is on a very tight time frame and the commission “would live in the bureaucratic ether,” meaning that the commission has no natural supporters inside any Administration.  Additionally, there is no actual requirement that Congress ever actually vote on the panel’s recommendations, which does not seem promising for any real results.

Howard Gleckman, Fiscal Cliff Repeals CLASS Act, Creates Long-Term Care Commission, Forbes, Jan. 1, 2013.  

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.