Internal emails show ObamaCare’s Long Term (Care) prgm. a money pit- BEFORE approval

*shrugs* they knew it was a money pit. from day 1.

Collecting taxs/fees ahead for 5 years, that would only cover what, 2-3 years of operation before the purse is empty? what a bunch of scumbags.





GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program

Internal emails uncovered by two congressman show that administration officials knew that a new program for long-term care was a recipe for disaster.

* SEPTEMBER 19, 2011, 1:19 P.M. ET

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A trove of internal emails uncovered by congressional investigators shows that administration officials knew that a new program for long-term care really was the fiscal disaster that critics claimed at the time.

Known by the acronym Class, the government-backstopped insurance for nursing homes, home health aides and the like was among the worst accounting gimmicks used to make it seem as if national health care would reduce the deficit. The voluntary Class program will collect premiums upfront next year but won't pay out benefits for another five years. The $70 billion accumulated during that lead time will finance other parts of ObamaCare, and then the Class program goes broke somewhere around 2020 and starts to drain taxpayers in part because the same money can't be spent twice.

The emails, obtained by a joint Republican panel led by Sen. John Thune and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, reveal that the administration knew the program was designed to fail and went ahead anyway. A Health and Human Services deputy secretary repeatedly warned his superiors and Democratic staff on the Hill that the Class program "seems like a recipe for disaster to me." Later, he even suggested that Democrats include a "failsafe" for public support.

Chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster, who has been a hero of fiscal honesty during the health-care debate, also warned that "adverse selection" could be "a terminal problem for this proposal" as early as May 2009, nearly a year before the bill passed. Because of the way Class is structured, healthy people are unlikely to buy in and premiums for the remaining sick will spike, leading to a classic insurance "death spiral."

"Thirty-six years of actuarial experience," Mr. Foster wrote to the Medicare legislative affairs office, "lead me to believe that this program would collapse in short order and require significant federal subsidies to continue." He later wrote that "I assume you've conveyed these concerns to the staff but, if not, let me know and we can express these concerns in a memo."

A Senate committee staffer "decided she does not think she needs additional work on the actuarial side," an HHS email later reported back. Of course not.

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GOP Vets an ObamaCare Program - WSJ.com