In an historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that Congress intended for tax credits provided under the Affordable Care Act to be available to people who buy a health plan in a health insurance marketplace run by their state or the federal government. The Court's ruling on the case, known as King v. Burwell, ensures that more than 6 million low- and middle-income Americans will continue to get the financial assistance they need to afford quality health coverage. The Court's decision also ensures that millions of people with serious health conditions will continue to have access to essential treatment and care, and millions of others at risk for disease will be able to afford preventive screenings and tests that could save their lives. This is critically important because the American Cancer Society's peer-reviewed studies have shown that people without health insurance are more likely than the insured to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer and to die from the disease. Before the ACA took effect, nearly 50 million Americans were uninsured and 29 million were underinsured. Since the enactment of the ACA, 16.4 million Americans have gained access to health insurance. This is in large part due to provisions in the ACA that provide patients with lifesaving prevention and early detection services at little or no cost, prohibit patients from being denied health coverage because they have a pre-existing condition such as cancer and enable children to stay on their parents' health plan until age 26, to name a few. Now that the Supreme Court has issued its decision, the Society and ACS CAN will continue to educate cancer patients and survivors nationwide about how major provisions of the law could help them. ACS CAN will continue to urge elected officials in Congress and the states to work together to protect and strengthen protections in the law for people with cancer and their families. If we're going to continue to make progress against a disease that is expected to kill nearly 590,000 people in the U.S. this year, we must ensure that all Americans have access to cancer prevention, early detection, treatment and follow-up care. Provisions of the ACA are getting us closer to achieving that goal.
The true costs of cancer are heavy, they are deep, and they are ultimately unaffordable for many, a challenge further exacerbated by this year’s COVID-19 pandemic and spotlighted by the upcoming Supreme Court case challenging the Affordable Care Act.