Site Search

Below is this week’s update on the Affordable Care Act. As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families.   New ACS CAN Evaluative Framework   The ACS CAN Policy Team recently developed the “ ACS CAN Evaluative Framework for Assessing the Small Business Health Insurance Options Program (SHOP) and Health Benefits Exchange Proposals .”   This document covers important questions that may arise as proposals for health benefit exchanges are ...

Federal Update   Physician networks and hospital systems can play an important role in driving down health care costs and improving quality of care.  The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently released a report titled "Plan Participation in Health Insurance Exchanges: Implications for Competition and Choice" that looks at how consolidation of hospital systems affects the ability of ...

Federal Update   Last month the administration released a final regulation on the Affordable Care Act provision requiring insurers to provide consumers with a brief and easy-to-understand Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC).  ACS CAN believes the regulation is an important step forward in enabling consumers to better understand their coverage and make more informed health care decisions.  As of September 23, 2012, this very valuable tool will be available for the first time during this fall's open enrollment ... consumers to make informed choices.   This week, ACS CAN and 16 other consumer advocacy groups sent a letter to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Treasury commending them for issuing a strong regulation and opposing any further changes. ACS CAN also ...

... as we know it by converting it to a “premium support” model -– essentially a modified and yet-to-be defined voucher program limiting the care Medicare would cover. This could very adversely affect many cancer patients given that half of all new cancer diagnoses involve people over ... for cancer patients. An estimated 9 percent of adults and 25 percent of children with cancer are covered by Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Medicaid also provides treatment to low-income women diagnosed with cancer through the successful National Breast ... cancer screenings to millions of people who would not otherwise get them.   The resolution also proposes deep cuts in domestic spending for health care, some of which is likely to hit cancer research at the National Institutes of Health and cancer prevention and early detection programs ...