Show Some CLASS | The New Republic

by Harold Pollack

Every day, disabled people and their loved ones navigate such financial and logistical challenges. Many of these issues have been neglected in this year’s health reform debate. Candidate Obama supported full-funding for the Community Choice Act (CCA), an important but potentially costly measure. That IOU remains unpaid. Whatever happens in the 2009 health reform, millions of people living with disability will remain subject to the difficulties and indignities that accompany means-tested public aid.

The Senate HELP bill does include one important measure called the Community Living Assistance and Social Support (CLASS) Act. Championed by the current HELP chairman Tom Harkin and by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, CLASS is a voluntary insurance program for adults to address key problems associated with disability. It would be financed through monthly insurance premiums. Qualifying beneficiaries would receive a cash benefit paid into a Life Independence Account. The benefit would vary with disability, but would exceed $50 per day and would be sheltered from Medicaid asset tests.
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