WHEREAS:

            Roughly 12 million Americans of all ages need long-term supports and services because of conditions that limit their ability to perform daily activities like basic personal hygiene, dressing, feeding themselves, getting in and out of bed, going to the bathroom, and walking or using a wheelchair; and

WHEREAS:

            The urgent demand for long-term services and supports will increase as Americans age, because about 2 out of 3 of today’s 65-year-olds are expected to need these services at some point in their lives; and

WHEREAS:

            Many Americans believe incorrectly that Medicare will provide them with comprehensive coverage for long-term services and supports, but it will not; and

WHEREAS:

            While Medicaid does cover long-term care, it too often forces individuals and families to forfeit their jobs and homes, and become impoverished before receiving the help they need; and

WHEREAS:

            The Affordable Care Act established the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a voluntary, publicly-administered social insurance program for workers who become functionally disabled under which, in exchange for paying premiums during their healthy working years, people would get daily cash benefits to help defray the costs of long-term care services and supports; and

WHEREAS:

            The law required the program to not disqualify workers with pre-existing disabling conditions and to be financially solvent for 75 years with funds solely from participants’ premiums.  The Secretary of Health and Human Services suspended work on implementing the program because of the challenges in meeting these legal requirements; and

WHEREAS:

            Despite suspension of implementation of the program, the U.S. House of Representatives voted, mostly along party lines, to repeal the CLASS long-term care insurance program without offering any hope for workers to meet their current or future long-term care needs; and

WHEREAS:

            The long-term care crisis still demands a national solution and the CLASS program offers a framework to address the urgent need for long-term supports and services for working and middle-class Americans; and

WHEREAS:

            The CLASS program also promotes an infrastructure that would help address the need to expand the pool of well-trained, respected and adequately compensated direct care service workers.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME support efforts to build upon and reform the CLASS program as a social insurance structure for our nation to address the serious long-term care needs of Americans.