On the recordFebruary 1, 2012
As a physician, I know firsthand of this really dire need to solve the problem for many families across this country who are struggling with their long-term care needs. I am the oldest of 10 children, and my father was a physician. He died 3 years ago from a lengthy illness, and required a lot of care at home. He did not have long-term care, but we gladly bore that burden and were able to provide for him even though it was somewhat of a strain. This is a serious problem facing every single family in this country. Yet what we've seen now is a program that was created in ObamaCare, a program that is clearly unsustainable by the administration's own admission. After almost a year now of wrangling about this, they've finally come to the conclusion that we knew before the bill even passed: that this was unsustainable, that it was unworkable, that it was fatally flawed. As a physician, I know the worst thing you can do for someone is to create false hope, and that's what this has done. As long as this stays on the books, on the statute books, we're not going to get anything done on this. We're not going to solve it. Now, there are many good ideas on both sides of the aisle, and we've discussed some of them in the Ways and Means Committee. There are bills on both sides of the aisle on which I believe we could work together in a true bipartisan fashion to solve this problem--but the CLASS program is clearly not the answer.…
