When the Obama administration reluctantly pulled the plug on the Class Act—a fiscally unsustainable plan for long-term insurance for assisted living—foes of the measure rejoiced. It was a sign of just how shoddy Obamacare in its entirety is.
But guess what? The Class Act remains on the books, and no doubt somewhere in the bowells of government there is somebody trying to devise a plan to revive the Teddy Kennedy-inspired act.
That is why you’re going to be hearing about this unaffordable program again in the next few days as House Republicans work to repeal it.
The Hill reports that the House Ways and Means Committee is marking up legislation to repeal the Class Act. It could come up for debate as early as tomorrow. No doubt, House Republicans will be accused of doing this for blatantly political reasons. Even the Obama administration has dropped the act, we will be reminded.
But not so fast. It will be safer to get this unaffordable law off the books. Sure, there are political uses for such a repeal: It will help keep the public focused on how bad the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–Obamacare–is.
The administration would like for you to stop thinking about Obamacare. To that end, it has granted waivers and HHS has given back to the states some powers that Obamacare would ordinarily hold–at least for the time being. It is very important for the public not to get amnesia.
The repeal effort may, as The Hill suggests, help build momentum against Obamacare as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on its constitutionality this summer. The justices will (one hopes) decide the matter solely on the basis of law. But it doesn't hurt if they know that the public hates the law. It can put them in a different frame of mind as they consider the issues.
Still, don’t let anybody tell you that it is a good idea to leave something this big, ill-thought-out, and expensive in place.
The best time to prevent the Class Act from one day rising from the dead is now.