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
5-19-11 Affordable Care Act Update
May 20, 2011
Federal Update
Prevention
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made $100 million available from the Prevention and Public Health Fund for up to 75 Community Transformation Grants that are aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and communities. The grants are specially focused on reducing chronic diseases, disparities, and health care costs with five priority areas: tobacco, nutrition and physical activity, evidence-based prevention services, mental health, and safe environments. Local and state government agencies, tribal organizations, and nonprofits are eligible for the funds. Read the HHS press release.
Medicaid and Cancer Coverage
Some recent news reports have incorrectly concluded that Medicaid offers substandard care because of evidence showing that survival rates for cancer patients in Medicaid can be poorer than for those outside the program. This conclusion is seriously misleading. What is often not reported is that cancer patients more often enroll in Medicaid with a late-stage cancer because of eligibility rules—i.e., they become eligible for Medicaid only because they have developed cancer and have no other treatment options. The reality is that patients in Medicaid actually have higher rates of cancer screening than those uninsured and almost the same rate of cancer screening as those in private insurance.
The Affordable Care Act removes many of the obstacles to receiving timely access to coverage in Medicaid, such as the elimination of eligibility restrictions for uninsured adults and increased provider payments to ensure that doctors and hospitals accept Medicaid patients when the Medicaid expansion takes effect in 2014. The attached fact sheet provides information on how the Medicaid program helps save lives from cancer.
State Update
Movement on State Exchange Legislation
Vermont’s governor is expected next week to sign legislation establishing a state insurance exchange that will operate as a single-payer system beginning in 2017. All eyes are on the governors in Colorado and Hawaii for indications of whether they will sign health insurance exchange legislation approved by their state legislatures. If the bills are signed, the states would join California, Maryland, Washington, West Virginia, and, as of next week, Vermont, as having enacted exchange legislation through the legislative process. Georgia and Indiana’s governors enacted state exchanges via executive order.
Additionally, a new document co-branded with the American Heart Association explaining threshold questions for state exchanges is now available for field use. Earlier this year, ACS CAN developed a document a similar that was distributed for use in the states. This new document expands on that earlier piece.
Maine's Governor Signs New Insurance Law
Maine’s governor signed a bill into law Tuesday making changes to the state’s insurance market for individuals and small businesses. The law would reverse some important protections for people with serious medical conditions that currently exist and the changes are contrary to the requirements that take affect under federal law in 2014.
Randy Schwartz, vice president of Strategic Health Initiatives for the New England Division, and Dr. Dennis DeSilvey, an American Heart Association board member, wrote an op ed for The Portland Press Herald objecting to aspects of the new law that repealed existing state laws on guaranteed issue and adjusted community rating. ACS CAN Senior Director for Policy Stephen Finan testified in opposition to the legislation several weeks ago before the Maine legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Insurance and Finance.
Gaps in Care if State Exchanges Are Built Poorly
People covered by the Affordable Care Act could experience disruptions in care if lawmakers do not set up their state insurance exchanges properly according to a Commonwealth Fund report released today. The report found that preserving some of the existing sources of insurance tailored to individual circumstances could potentially lead to abrupt changes in financial responsibility or coverage when the exchanges go into effect. The brief describes four policy challenges related to such changes in coverage and cost:
Adjusting premium and cost-sharing subsidies when incomes change;
Coordinating eligibility for premium credits, Medicaid and CHIP;
Encouraging and facilitating continuous coverage; and
Minimizing transitions between individual and small-business exchanges.
High Prices Prompts Cancer Patients to Forgo Oral Meds
High costs are keeping 10 percent of cancer patients from taking the oral medication they need, according to an Avalere Health study. Patients who had to pay more than $500 out-of-pocket for oral cancer medication were four times more likely not to fill an initial prescription than patients who had to pay $100 or less. Additionally, cancer patients who also require non-cancer medications were more likely to stop filling their cancer prescriptions. Among Medicare beneficiaries, claims are abandoned 16 percent of the time in the period studied, compared to 9 percent for patients with private insurance.
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 Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)