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Guest Blog: A Health Care Success Story
... never returned, but since then I have waged an equally if not more difficult battle a three-decade struggle to get quality, affordable health coverage. I was denied coverage outright more times than I can count, and was regularly quoted sky-high prices for flimsy plans. Discussions ... with insurers effectively ended once I disclosed my previous cancer diagnosis. Often I had to dig into my savings account to pay for needed care. For 15 years I paid annual dues to a professional association just so I could access the association's health coverage. I struggled to afford the plan's constantly rising premiums and its $3,000 deductible, so I reduced the coverage and gave up ...
Guest Post: Why Health Care Policy is Personal
... Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Angus King (I-Maine) at a Capitol Hill press conference that emphasized the importance of key provisions of the health care law for cancer patients and survivors. I've heard it said that politics should never be personal that public debate and policy ... policy, and the political complexities that inform it, is personal. It cannot be removed from experience because, with something so personal as health care, policy directly influences the everyday experiences of millions of Americans across the country. This belief is rooted in my own ...
How the Health Care Law Benefits Breast Cancer Patients & Survivors
... cancer patients and their families also have the security of knowing they no longer have to worry about whether they will be able to get the care they need. Why? Because this Breast Cancer Awareness Month coincides with the opening of state health insurance marketplaces created by the health care law. The new marketplaces opened Oct. 1, allowing millions of uninsured Americans to shop for quality, affordable insurance plans that ...
The Path to Health Equity Starts with Access to Care
... and so often left behind. As we continue to examine policy interventions that will accelerate our progress in the fight against cancer, reducing health disparities emerges time and time again. We have all been touched by cancer, but across the cancer continuum from detection to diagnosis to treatment, health inequities result in very different disease experiences. Racial injustice often drives these inequities. The result: worsened health ... if they are over 50. One critical approach to reducing health disparities is by increasing access to and addressing the affordability of health care. I was proud to join Dr. Lori Pierce, the current President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in writing an editorial for ...
Our Nation's Health Depends on Access to Care: 10 Years of the ACA
... ACS CAN continues to support and advocate on behalf of people living with serious illnesses, like cancer, to ensure they have access to the care they need to protect their and their families’ health. Last week, we joined 28 other patient organizations to successfully work with Congress to pass legislation that would help protect ... spending, as Medicaid programs can play a key role in states’ ability to effectively respond to the current pandemic. In times of public health crises, ensuring people across the country have access to screening and treatment is of crucial importance. If there was ever a time to ...
Expanding and Protecting Access to Health Care is Key to Supporting Marginalized Communities
... patient advocates and friends to use this time to listen, learn and self-educate on the role we must serve to protect the well-being, safety and health of communities nationwide that continue to be marginalized by our society. In a recent win for one of these communities, we joined millions ... of inequity in our country . Central to that effort is ensuring individuals that have been and continue to be marginalized are able to access health care without fear of discrimination, bias or stigma. I know undoubtedly that addressing health disparities hinges on protecting the fundamental ...
Understanding Your Health Benefits
Like many of you, I find health insurance benefits to be difficult to interpret. Every time I've enrolled in an insurance plan, I]'ve been presented with a long, ... benefit summary full of industry jargon. That's why I'm happy to share that starting this week, insurers are required under the Affordable Care Act to present every consumer with a Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC), a document with simple and easy-to-read information on what their ... reason. Cancer patients, survivors, their families and all consumers are now in a far better position to make important decisions about their health coverage. Here's an example of what an SBC document could look like for you. What do you think about it? You'll see it breaks down the ...
Chat With Us Today About Health Insurance
Cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones are benefiting from provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law last March. Take Taylor, for example. Diagnosed with cancer at age 8, she nearly reached the lifetime benefit limit on her health insurance coverage by the age of 11. But thanks to the new law's ban on lifetime limits, she no longer has to worry about reaching a cap ... the care she needs. Other provisions of the law are making it easier for people with cancer and their families to access quality, affordable health care. But the law is complex and can be difficult for consumers and patients to understand. That's why ACS CAN teamed up with national ...
Health Coverage that's Easy to Understand
... you information about the product and enable you to compare it with other brands based on features and price. This has never been the case with health insurance. Today, when consumers pick a health coverage plan they are given a long document filled with complicated jargon that is virtually impossible for them to understand. An important provision in the Affordable Care Act, known as the Summary of Benefits and Coverage provision, was written to change that. The provision requires insurance companies to ...
Guest Post: Addressing Health Disparities Through Patient Navigation
... in all communities, for all people. ACS CAN does this by supporting public policies that ensure all people have access to quality, affordable health care and preventive screenings; are able to breathe smoke-free air; and working to ensure that medical research is inclusive. As the Society's ... over the past two decades. Despite this progress, there is still work to do. During a presentation to the Society and ACS CAN on the state of health and wellness in the African American community, Dr. Harold P. Freeman, former Society National Board President and founder of the Harold P. ...