Currently there are 10 million Americans in need of long term services and supports, and the number is expected to increase to near 15 million by 2020. A little known provision of the Health Reform Bill is the Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS) Act is expected to help solve this problem.
It is a voluntary, federally administered, consumer-financed insurance plan. It became law when President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. The CLASS plan provides those who participate with cash to help pay for needed assistance, if they become functionally limited, in a place they call home — from independent living to a nursing facility, if they choose.
In general, after signing up for the program, a participant will need to pay premiums for five years and be actively at work for three of these years before receiving benefits. So long as a person keeps paying premiums after the three years actively-at-work requirement is met, a person is still considered a CLASS Act plan participant.
The program will allow workers to have an average of roughly $150 or $240 a month, based on age and salary, automatically deducted from their paycheck to save for long-term care.
After the five-year vesting period, enrollees who need help bathing, eating or dressing will be eligible to take out benefits, estimated to be around $50-$75 a day for in-home care.
Supporters say the program will relieve pressure on Medicaid and should help keep us out of nursing homes by enabling Americans to save for something most will eventually need -- assistance in eating, bathing or dressing in their old age.
How significant is this? A national Voluntary long term care program? Many say it will be more important and larger than Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). This will be additional "Self Funding" to help cover shortages. As many Americans they can't rely on Social Security they need to make sure they can be taken care of in there later years.
What does it mean to the senior care industry? Well if only 5% of those 15,000,000 spoken about in the opening paragraph were to participate, in five years that would equate to 750,000 people. At $50.00 a day for 30 days a month would come to an additional $1.125 Billion dollars a MONTH to the home care industry in addition to the already projected growth.
That amount of money should help out many seniors and those that serve them.
