Obama names final members to long-term care commission

President Barack Obama has named his three appointees to the long-term care commission that Congress created earlier this year to establish and finance a system that ensures long-term care services and supports are available to those who need them.

The president appointed Henry Claypool, a former HHS administrator who now serves as the executive vice president of the American Association of People with Disabilities; Dr. Julian Harris, the director of Massachusetts' Medicaid office, and Carol Raphael, vice chair of the AARP's board of directors.

“I am proud that such experienced and committed individuals have agreed to serve the American people in these important roles,” the president said in a statement from the White House that included other administration appointments.

The commission is responsible for making recommendations to Congress this year on how to establish, implement and pay for a long-term care system in the United States. Although the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, known as CLASS, embedded in the 2010 healthcare reform law was intended to do this, HHS stopped the program in the fall of 2011 after the department couldn't find a way to make it financially sustainable. Congress repealed CLASS this past January as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act, which also created the 15-member board.

In naming Claypool, Harris and Raphael, the president filled the remaining slots on the panel that includes commissioners already named by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Those appointees include Grace-Marie Turner, founder and president of the Galen Institute, a conservative think tank; Bruce Greenstein, secretary of the Louisiana Health and Hospitals Department; and Judith Stein, founder and executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy.