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Kudos to the Diane Rehm Show on WAMU for focusing a full hour on the creation of a national long-term care insurance program.  After months of struggling to get the attention of the press on what the creation of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) plan will mean for Americans, it is so rewarding to hear Diane Rehm taking on this issue.  Her show is often the barometer for an issue’s relevancy in opinion leaders’ and the public’s minds.

Additional kudos go to Jim Firman of the National Council on Aging, who appeared on the show.  He directly challenged Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Actuary Rick Foster on the assumptions Foster used in his analysis of the potential take-up rate for CLASS. Firman also had a letter to the editor published in today’s Washington Post.

Trying to estimate how many people will opt-out of the program is the core question for predicting whether CLASS can be solvent.  The Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s official scorekeeper, estimates a much higher take-up rate than Foster does.

We continue to work with our partners to educate the press, Congress and the public about the CLASS provisions and what they will mean for individuals, families and caregivers.

Stay tuned for more media reports as we get the word out.

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A quick update this week, as not much has changed over the past week on our issues.

Housing Appropriations for 2010: We hear that House and Senate appropriators are close to a final 2010 spending bill. The final bill may include some of the provisions in our Section 202 reform legislation. We will let you know as soon as we see what the conferees provide for funding levels for senior housing this year.

HCBS Appropriations: No Senate floor action yet on the Labor/Health and Human Services appropriations bill that funds Older Americans Act programs. The OAA programs are currently covered under a continuing resolution, which expires at the end of this month, but we have been assured that Congress will pass another continuing resolution to keep federal programs in operation.

Health Care Reform: The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled a vote for Tuesday on its amended health care reform package. The measure will then have to be merged with the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee measure that contains the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) plan. After that, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will have to score the merged legislation before a floor vote can take place.

It appears that the timetable for the full Senate to vote on health care reform is slipping to the week of Oct. 26. It also seems more and more likely that the House will not vote on its bill until after the Senate finishes with its legislation. But prognosticators still predict that  a final bill will be ready to go to the White House by Christmas Eve.

Because it is critical for the CLASS plan to survive the merger of the Finance and HELP Committee drafts, we have scheduled a Senate Call-In Day for Tuesday, Oct. 13, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Please join us in urging senators to contact Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to let him know that the CLASS provisions be included in the health care reform bill that goes to the Senate floor.

We also participated in a rally with several other stakeholder groups on Capitol Hill on Thursday in support of the CLASS plan. The rally featured an appearance by one of our members, Donna Taylor of Phoenix, Ariz., who spoke of the difficulty she experienced in obtaining care for members of her own family, even as a professional in our field, and the difference CLASS benefits would have made.

Following the rally, Ms. Taylor was interviewed by Joe Shapiro, a reporter for National Public Radio’s  All Things Considered, who was doing a story on the CLASS plan.

That’s it for now.

If you have today off, enjoy! We’re hard at work in D.C.

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Over Congress’ Fourth of July recess, we need your help contacting key legislators and urging them to include the CLASS Act in the various health care reform bills.

These legislators include senators on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) and Finance committees,  House members on the Energy & Commerce, the Ways & Means, and the Education & Labor committees, and the Blue Dog Coalition.

It’s a long list, but it’s important we contact as many of these legislators as possible.

Please let us know if you need contact information for these legislators.

We developed the following  sample messages you can use to contact these legislators. Please feel free to add your own words, which are always more effective than standardized messages.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score, which is laid out descriptively rather than by numbers alone, is the most important point to get across.

Please include your contact information so you can follow up with the legislators. We’ll be in touch early next week with information about our plans for the August recess. Working together, we will make it affordable to care!

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee
Mark-up on the CLASS Act is expected for July 8, so this is the major key group to contact now

“We urge you to support the inclusion of the CLASS Act (Title XXXII) in the Affordable Health Choices Act currently in mark-up.  This new insurance program is fully paid by premiums.  The CBO score (negative $57.8 billion over 10 years) clearly shows that this program will not cost the government a penny over the next 10 years, has a positive savings of $2.5 billion in Medicaid in the first 10 years alone, and is sustainable over the long term.  This program would transform financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence.”

Senate Finance Committee

“We urge you to include the CLASS Act, introduced by the HELP Committee, in the Affordable Health Choices Act (Title XXXII) in your committee’s health reform legislation when it is introduced.  This program would transform financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence.  The CLASS Act was scored by CBO as sustainable for the long term, and because it is paid by premiums, the score (negative $57.8 billion) confirms that this program does not cost the government a penny over the next 10 years and has a positive savings of $2.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars in the first 10 years alone.”

House Energy & Commerce, Ways & Means, and Education & Labor Committees:

“We urge you to support including the CLASS Act, H.R. 1721, in the Tri-Committee Health Care legislation. The CLASS Act was introduced by Representatives Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), and is now part of the Senate HELP Committee’s Affordable Health Choices Act as Title XXXII.  This new insurance program would transform the financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence. The CBO score (negative $57.8 billion over 10 years) clearly shows that this premium insurance-based program is not a cost to the federal government, is sustainable over the long term, and actually saves $2.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars in the first 10 years alone.”

Blue Dog Democrat Coalition

“We urge you to support including the CLASS Act, H.R. 1721, in the House’s health care legislation. The CLASS Act was introduced by Representatives Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.), and is now part of the Senate HELP Committee’s Affordable Health Choices Act as Title XXXII. This new insurance program would transform the financing of long-term services and supports, assist America’s workers and future retirees, and promote choice and independence. The CBO score (negative $57.8 billion over 10 years) clearly shows that this premium insurance based program is not a cost to the federal government, is sustainable over the long-term, and actually saves $2.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars in the first 10 years alone.”

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