December 19th, 2013
By Allison Bell
Medicare actuaries strangled the Community Living Assistance and Support Services (CLASS) public long-term care (LTC) finance program just two years ago, but some health policy makers say Congress is going to have to come up with some other kind of new public LTC program sooner or later.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, opened an LTC policy hearing Wednesday by citing Congressional Budget Office estimates that LTC expenditures will eat up 3.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2050, up from 1.3 percent of GDP today.