"Mr. Kennedy's final bequest" - CLASS Act - the first national plan for long-term care insurance.

[quiet.american]

I think this is one of the great, low-key items that was included in the final HCR bill. I'll probably be pretty much on my own as I grow elderly, and I think this will be a great buffer to have when those days come. Below are excerpts from a good NYT Q&A on it.

http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/details-on-the-class-act/">NYT: Details on the Class Act

"The New Old Age" has been following the Class Act, the first national plan for long-term care insurance, since last summer, but the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his staff began working on the current version of this plan in 2003. It was tucked into the Democrats’ health care legislation and thus, without much public attention, became law last month. Call it Mr. Kennedy’s final bequest.

...Ms. Garner, who was Mr. Kennedy’s right-hand woman on this issue, probably did the most for the longest to get this new insurance program passed. If it works as planned, we may want to erect a statue in her honor; if the more dire predictions come to pass, we’ll have to pull it down.

Q.Who’s eligible to enroll?

A.The simplest answer: Working people. Not people who’ve already retired (unless they continue to work part-time). Not nonworking spouses. Not the unemployed. Participants have to pay premiums for five years, the so-called vesting period, before they can receive benefits, and they have to continue working for three of those five.

Part-time workers are eligible. As currently written, the law requires part-timers to earn enough annually to pay Social Security taxes, a threshold that’s now at about $1,200. The self-employed and anyone whose employer declines to offer Class coverage — it’s optional— will be able sign up through a yet-to-be-determined mechanism.

more at the link:
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/details-on-the-class-act/

[BrklynLiberal]

1. If the repukes were not talking about it, it was not in the MSM.

The only news they print is what the repukes want them to print..