Letter: Bill supports biomarker testing
This letter originally ran in the Lincoln Journal Star.
News
2-5-10-This Week in Health Care Reform
February 16, 2010
ON CAPITOL HILL
Over the past week Congress and the White House have devoted considerable attention to the federal budget, the economy, and jobs; we expect those to remain the primary focus during the coming weeks. This does not mean that health care reform efforts have been abandoned. Health care may no longer be the lead story every single day, but negotiations are continuing furiously behind the scenes. Congressional leadership and the White House have continued their discussions on the issue, debating the best path and ideal timing to continue moving health care reform legislation forward. As always, we remain committed to securing meaningful health care reform in this Congress to address the needs of cancer patients and their families.
GRASSROOTS UPDATE
ACS CAN is keeping up the pressure on legislators, urging them to finish the job on meaningful health care reform. Earlier this week, we began patch-through calls to targeted Senators – Democrat, Republican and Independent - and completed 744 patch-throughs in just the first two days of calling. We expect this rate to greatly increase as we continue calls for the next two weeks. On Tuesday, ACS CAN hosted its monthly State Lead Ambassador call, which focused heavily on health care reform and plans for keeping the issue at the forefront of communications with lawmakers during the upcoming President’s Day recess.
POLLING UPDATE
New polling shows that the public does not understand what is included in the health reform bills passed by the House and Senate, that the fierce and often bitter debate has made the public distrustful of lawmakers from both parties on this issue, and that the public is nervous about a bill described in sweeping terms as having a revolutionary impact on the health care system. As this recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows, public support for reform grew substantially if specific provisions in legislation that would help individuals access the care they need were explained. For example, the survey found that 63 percent of respondents said they were more supportive of reform legislation after being told that people would no longer be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
IN THE STATES
With federal health care reform paused for the moment, many state legislatures have again started to work in earnest on health care access issues. As you know, state budgets are in distress, and Medicaid and state screening programs that give the uninsured and underinsured access to screenings for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer, among others, need to be protected from budget cuts. State efforts are also underway to pass guarantees of coverage for colorectal cancer screenings through private insurance and for cancer patients who enroll in approved clinical trials. Many states are also looking to curtail the exorbitant out-of-pocket insurance costs that a growing number of cancer patients face due to the availability of newer, targeted oral chemotherapeutic drugs. In addition, some states are refusing to allow women who have been diagnosed under one state's breast and cervical cancer program to continue their treatment if they move to a new state. The inability to move and continue treatment presents potentially serious obstacles to women’s access to quality care. If you are aware that this is happening in your state, please contact Carter Steger at 202-661-5727 or via Lotus Notes. These many legislative battles at the state level are critical to our efforts to increase access to care for cancer patients.
As always, thanks for everything you do every day for cancer patients and their families.
Molly Daniels
Interim President
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network