Empowering patient voices through voter registration
While roughly 83% of adults in the United States will visit a health care provider in the next year, an estimated
News
11-10-11 Affordable Care Act Update
November 14, 2011
State Update
Society Division and ACS CAN government relations staff placed calls Friday to nearly 30 state insurance commissioners across the country, reminding them to make the interests of consumers and patients a top priority when making decisions about the medical loss ratio (MLR).
The calls were in response to a possible vote at a meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to exclude the compensation of insurance brokers and agents from the MLR. ACS CAN believes broker and agent commissions should be included in the MLR calculation so that it accurately reflects the proportion of spending by insurers on health care as opposed to administrative expenses. Removing commissions from the calculation would violate the intent of the ACA and render the MLR effectively meaningless to consumers.
The commissioners decided to table the MLR issue for the time being, but the NAIC could raise it again, possibly in the next few weeks.
In other news, the Department of Health and Human Services "listening tour" on what should constitute "essential health benefits" that health plans sold in the new exchanges must offer is in full swing, with stops in Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas and Chicago this past week. Still to come are sessions in New York City, Kansas City, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco. Society Division and ACS CAN staff and volunteers will be in attendance with materials and talking points from ACS CAN to ensure consistent communications about the need for an essential health benefits package that provides people with cancer access to the full continuum of care, from prevention and early detection to treatment to follow-up care.
Litigation
The Supreme Court was scheduled to meet today in private to discuss several petitions for the justices to hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).. The Court's decision to accept, defer, or deny these petitions is expected to be announced November 14.
On Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in a constitutional challenge to the ACA, becoming the latest federal appeals court to do so. The court upheld the law, including the requirement that individuals purchase or obtain health insurance (the so-called "individual mandate"). In its opinion, the court reasoned that the U.S. Constitution allows Congress to pass laws that are necessary and proper to the regulation of interstate commerce. Rejecting challengers' arguments that requiring people to purchase a good or service is not "regulating commerce," the opinion discussed well-established principles outlined by the U.S. Supreme Court in previous cases that would allow this result.
In all, four federal appeals courts have now issued rulings on ACA, with only one striking down the individual mandate but leaving the rest of the law intact.
Read a story from Politico on the financial industry's take on the lawsuits.
Policy
The ACA requires the development of a Summary of Benefits and Coverage that would be issued by virtually every health plan beginning on March 23, 2012. This is potentially a vital step toward providing consumers with basic information about plans that is not available today. The summary would be short and easy to understand, allowing consumers to compare plans based on coverage for significant medical conditions, premiums, and other information.
The administration issued a proposed regulation on the disclosure requirement this summer and ACS CAN submitted extensive comments that were developed in coordination with a number of other consumer groups. However, we have reason to believe that many of the consumer concerns may not be reflected in the final regulation. We are concerned that the effective date may be delayed, and more importantly, that many plans, including large employer plans, may be exempt from the disclosure requirement. We believe this would be a significant setback for administrative simplification and consumer education.
The consumer groups sent a letter to the White House and have undertaken other efforts to try to influence the administration before decisions are made about the final regulation, which might be published as early as this month. Read the op-ed written by Consumers Union and published in Politico. The letter to the White House is attached.
Media/Polling
New Study Shows Positive Impressions of CHIP and Medicaid
A new poll released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) found that parents whose children are enrolled in CHIP or Medicaid have positive impressions of the programs. Seventy-one percent of parents with children who participate in CHIP had favorable views of their state's program, and 72 percent of parents with children enrolled in Medicaid reported liking the program. The study also looked at barriers to enrollment for those parents who do not have children in Medicaid/CHIP and found that the perceptions of challenging enrollment processes and income ineligibility were the top deterrents.
As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families.
Christopher W. Hansen
President
American Cancer Society Can