Kirk stays on health care

KIRK'S REMARKS

I want to address a legislative initiative that will assist our senior or infirm citizens as part of our health care reform initiative. Today in the United States there are approximately 200 million people who are elderly or disabled. These individuals are some of our most vulnerable and often they are forgotten.

But they always had a friend and advocate in Senator Ted Kennedy. He was the premier legislative innovator. Senator Kennedy understood the current system is not working, that it cried out for innovation. He knew it was wrong that in order for individuals with disabilities and the elderly to receive the services and support they need, they had to stop working, spend down their savings, abandon their dreams, abandon their homes, and possibly go into a permanent facility. All the wrong incentives for individuals who deserve dignity in those fragile years.

All this, he felt, is directly contrary to our idea of living the “American dream.” Senator Kennedy was not one to sit idly by. He acted. He acted to try to help as many of these men and women as possible. The community living assistance services and supports act, known as the CLASS Act, was at the heart of his efforts to help people with functional limitations and their families obtain the services and support they need in order to keep their independence and continue as active members of their communities. I am honored to take up that worthy cause.

Here’s how the CLASS Act will help the middle class. Under the act, a worker in Massachusetts or any other state can choose to pay into a voluntary insurance program through affordable payroll deductions. After five years of those deductions, they would be eligible for a daily cash benefit of $50 if they became disabled. That money can make a huge difference in allowing a disabled person to live with independence and with dignity. For example, it can pay for having a ramp installed in their home or pay for needed transportation or purchase a commuter to work from home and remain self-sufficient.

Some have said this innovation is unsustainable, that it is just another government benefit that will become unaffordable in the years to come. But the Congressional Budget Office and other independent auditing agencies estimate the CLASS Act will be able to maintain its solvency for 75 years. The plan is self-funded and is a cost saver for Medicaid, since fewer people would need to push themselves into poverty in order to enroll in Medicaid and receive the care they need. The CLASS Act will correct that disincentive.

The CLASS Act is a realistic answer to the serious problems of our current system, and it's important to the lives of millions of Americans. Disability could suddenly strike any of us in the years ahead. As we work to provide health insurance to the tens of millions of Americans who do not have it, it is hard to understand why we should not meet the needs of millions of people with disabilities and the elderly who desperately need our help.

I hope very much that our colleagues will support the CLASS Act as an innovative and necessary part of the current health reform bill, and I look forward to further opportunities to advance this measure, and ultimately as a part of the needed health reform bill that is coming to the floor and will help and serve the American people to its ultimate enactment.