Ted Deutch: “Although I regret that this Congress is considering the full repeal of a promising effort to address the looming…”

“Although I regret that this Congress is considering the full repeal of a promising effort to address the looming long-term care crisis in our country, I have to admit I'm not surprised. This is the action of a Congress deserving of America's low opinion of us. We know the facts. A vote against this amendment is a vote for increased Medicaid spending. No one is immune from becoming disabled or growing old, yet just 10 percent of Americans over age 50 can afford long-term care insurance. As a result, a staggering 90 percent of Americans rely on long-term care provided by Medicaid. It is no wonder that over a third of Medicaid spending is on long-term care, not on checkups for impoverished children, not on prenatal care for poor, expectant mothers. No, it is the expensive, institutionalized long-term care funded by Medicaid. The goals of the CLASS program represented an alternative to this system on which we all could have agreed, a fully solvent, affordable, premium-financed, long-term care program. It emphasizes personal responsibility, lessens the burden on taxpayers, and reduces unnecessary Medicaid spending. Sometimes, as things happen here, Congress passes imperfect legislation. But rather than address these imperfections, the legislation before this House today gives up on our grappling with this long-term care crisis altogether. We've overcome challenges like this before. In the early 1980s, Social Security faced a crisis. So what happened?…”