Details on the Class Act, Pt. 2 - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

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By PAULA SPAN

Posting about the new federal Class Act invariably brings at least two kinds of responses from New Old Age readers: questions about how it will operate and who will be able to participate, and a tide of gloomy predictions, often from insurance agents and industry spokesman, of spiking premiums and eventual insolvency.

Since this represents the country’s first attempt at public long-term care insurance, we can’t say with assurance whether the optimists who helped get the law passed or the pessimists who tried to derail it are correct.

“It hasn’t been tried,” said Barbara Manard, a health economist at the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. “But what we have tried isn’t working. We have to try something new.” Given the sometimes crushing costs of long-term care, I’d call that statement, at least, unassailable.
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