plan that will not have any cash outlays in the beginning years.

Senate bill...

bottom of page 11
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10731/...

"The legislation includes a number of other provisions with a significant budgetary effect.

They include the following:

 Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) provisions, which
would establish a voluntary federal program for long-term care insurance. Active
workers could purchase coverage, usually through their employer. Premiums
would be set to cover the full cost of the program as measured on an actuarial
basis. However, the program’s cash flows would show net receipts for a number of
years, followed by net outlays in subsequent decades. In particular, the program
would pay out far less in benefits than it would receive in premiums over the
10-year budget window, reducing deficits by about $72 billion over that period,
including about $2 billion in savings to Medicaid..."


---- House bill...links

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

Generating revenue to cover the plan's cost over the 10 year period...bottom of page 7 in the CBO report. While the program itself sounds good, notice how this new piece reduces the deficit by 72 billion in the 10 year window.

Nice way to reduce the cost for Now.

The headline news was that this bill would reduce the deficit by 104 billion...

BREAKING: CBO Releases Numbers On House Health Care Bill : Reduce Deficit by $104 Billion

...so where did that reduction come from, it appears a large portion (72 billion) is due to this new long term care insurance, aka CLASS.

While that is something to celebrate, the plan would have people paying in over the 10 year budget window for something they will need in the future, naturally this will be all gains until people start drawing from the fund. For reference this is shown on page 26, Table 3 of the CBO report.

It reminded me of the SS Trust Fund that was pre-financed and helped to reduce the deficits, especially during the Clinton and Bush years...]/b]