ABSTRACT
Title VIII of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the health care reform legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in March 2010, established a voluntary public insurance program for longterm care, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. Championed by the late Senator Edward Kennedy, the CLASS program was to be a “public option” for long-term care insurance. Although the CLASS
Act had the potential to radically change long-term care financing, it received little attention during the health care reform debate, and few people outside of a handful of long-term care experts knew about it (Miller, 2011).
