Proponents of Obamacare claim that it will simultaneously provide millions of Americans with health insurance and reduce the budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars. Yet Obamacare’s proclaimed budgetary discipline rests on unlikely assumptions and budget gimmicks none worse than the CLASS Act, a national long-term-care insurance program. CLASS is essentially a Ponzi scheme that will run initial surpluses followed by massive deficits virtually guaranteeing program bankruptcy or, more likely, massive taxpayer bailouts. The surest way to avoid this fate is to repeal the program preferably before it enrolls participants on January 1, 2011. The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl and Visiting Fellow James Capretta explain why repeal is the right action for Congress to take.
America urgently needs to reform its health care system. Obamacare falls short of genuine reform because its alleged benefits increase not only government spending but also the cost of private health insurance.
By Victor Trammell Photo credits: Jean-Manuel Duvivier Washington state approved a first-in-the-nation statute that provided a long-term care benefit for citizens who paid into a state fund. She thought it would be a resource for others experiencing similar issues. The WA Cares Fund, which was slated to begin collecting money for the program with an […]