CLASS repeal would have no effect: CBO

The Congressional Budget Office will assume the long-term care insurance program included in last year's healthcare reform law is defunct when calculating baseline budget projections that will be issued in January, CBO Director Douglas Elmdendorf said in a blog post.

Elmdendorf wrote that his office received several inquiries about the budgetary implications after the news from HHS on Friday that the agency will not implement the CLASS Act. In its February estimate on efforts to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the CBO determined that the program would save about $86 billion over a decade.

Repealing the CLASS Act to ensure that the program doesn't resurface in the future would not have any budgetary effects, Elmdendorf noted Monday. “Following longstanding procedures, CBO takes new administrative actions into account when analyzing legislation being considered by Congress—even if it has not published new baseline projections,” the posting said. “Beginning immediately, therefore, legislation to repeal the CLASS provisions in current law would be estimated as having no budgetary impact.”

The White House reiterated comments HHS officials made last week that both the administration and Congress should spend time finding solutions to the nation's problems regarding long-term care. “Repealing the CLASS Act isn't necessary or productive,” Nick Papas, a spokesman for the White House, said in an e-mail Monday. “What we should be doing is working together to address the long-term care challenges we face in this country."