The main problem, as Josh Gordon, policy director for the fiscal-watchdog group the Concord Coalition, noted, is that CLASS, which has passed "below the radar" of most Americans, is a poorly designed "gimmick." While Washington would start collecting CLASS premiums in 2011, CLASS would not pay benefits for five years. So, because it charges for 10 years, but only pays out in five, CLASS appears to be a deficit cutter in the health care bill's 10-year budget window.

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Beneficiaries could use CLASS payments to help pay - not only for institutional long-term care, but also for in-home care. Now I know I'll get e-mail from readers who argue that it is cheaper for mom to live with them than in a nursing home. But as the Concord Coalition warned, because CLASS "pays for a panoply of desirable home-care benefits, but fails to provide adequate oversight, it also invites moral hazard." And because "just about anyone who can possibly qualify will want to collect these benefits," the Concord Coalition warns of "induced demand - or what is sometimes called the 'out of the woodwork' phenomenon."