More Questions on CLASS
You may have seen news reports indicating that Rep. Rehberg has sent a letter to HHS asking what did the Secretary know – and when did she know it regarding the “totally unsustainable” CLASS Act Ponzi scheme. Several statements indicate that HHS undertook analyses regarding the program BEFORE the bill was passed into law – yet failed to disclose this information to Congress. Even one year after the fact, the American people have a right to know whether and how the “most transparent” Administration deliberately concealed information about the CLASS Act’s structural flaws from the public for political reasons.
Also of interest on this issue: An article in this morning’s Wall Street Journal highlighting the problems with the Social Security disability system. Over and above the article’s statements highlighting SSDI’s pending insolvency, many may be concerned by inconsistent standards used by state offices that adjudicate claims, and the extremely high approval rates in some localities and through some officials – for instance, one administrative law judge approved 98% of the Social Security disability claims he heard during fiscal year 2010.
Many of the same problems – namely, lax and inconsistent standards to receive program benefits – could apply to the CLASS Act. While the health care law requires the establishment of state-based centers to adjudicate claims, it’s unclear how these provisions will apply in practice. Will the CLASS Act require an entirely new state-based system to process claims – potentially saddling states with yet more implementation costs mandated by Washington? Will the CLASS Act rely on the same state disability determination centers that produce such inconsistent standards, as the Journal article demonstrated? Sadly, HHS has yet to answer any of these questions – but all of them raise additional concerns about the CLASS Act’s solvency, specifically whether the claims determination process will leave the program subject to significant amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse.