What Is ‘CLASS’? And Will It Work?

The brief’s key findings are:

• Long-term care is the major uninsured expense for most retirees.

• CLASS is a new, voluntary, national program designed to:
• alleviate the need for families to impoverish themselves to qualify for Medicaid;
• reduce the burden of care on families; and
• offset a bias towards institutionalization.

• The primary challenge to CLASS is adverse selection – participation mainly by the less healthy.

• To avoid a death spiral of rising premiums and declining participation, major program changes are needed.