Harold Pollack is a professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration and Special Correspondent for The Treatment

I’ve written before on the CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports) Act, an important but costly and complex disability provision in health reform. CLASS’s future may be determined this week.

For the uninitiated, CLASS is a voluntary program in which workers can pay a monthly premium which would entitle them to monthly cash payments in the event of disability.  Recipients could use this money to buy ramps and other equipment, assistance from home health care workers, and other goods or services that promote independence and personal well-being.

CLASS is included in the Senate HELP Committee and House bills. Much of the disability community has rallied around it, including some 275 advocacy groups and organizations. CLASS also derives odd political benefit from the Congress’s mechanical health reform budget scoring rules. CLASS front-loads revenues by requiring a 5-year vesting period before individuals are eligible to receive benefits. It therefore produces billions of dollars in premiums that count as apparent surplus under the next decade.