[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3829 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3829

                        To repeal the CLASS Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 23, 2010

Mr. Graham (for himself, Mr. Coburn, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. McCain, and Mr. 
    Cornyn) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
                        To repeal the CLASS Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Long-Term Care Bailout Prevention 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) According to an August 2010 survey by the National 
        Business Group on Health, only 3 percent of employers would 
        participate in the CLASS program.
            (2) While the CLASS program is projected to create an 
        initial surplus that is used to pay for the programs created by 
        the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Chief 
        Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 
        has stated that by 2025, benefit payments will exceed premium 
        revenues and the CLASS program will run deficits. This 
        financing mechanism has even been referred to as a Ponzi 
        scheme.
            (3) The CMS Chief Actuary has said, ``In general, 
        voluntary, unsubsidized, and non-underwritten insurance 
        programs such as CLASS face a significant risk of failure as a 
        result of adverse selection by participants.''.
            (4) Because of the downward spiral created by adverse 
        selection, the program could go bankrupt and the Secretary of 
        Health and Human Services could be forced to drastically 
        increase premiums to unaffordable levels or taxpayers could be 
        asked to bailout the CLASS program.
            (5) The alternatives described in paragraph (4) are 
        unacceptable so the program must be repealed.

SEC. 3. REPEAL OF THE CLASS ACT.

    Title VIII of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
(Public Law 111-148) and the amendments made by such title are 
repealed.
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