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
7-13-12 Affordable Care Act Update
July 13, 2012
Federal Update
The House of Representatives voted yesterday to repeal the Affordable Care Act(ACA) - the first such vote since the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law two weeks ago. The Repeal of Obamacare Act (HR 6079) passed by a vote of 244-185 after two days of floor debate. The vote was mostly on party lines, with five Democrats joining the House Republican majority in support of the bill. The measure faces certain doom in the Senate.
In addition to the vote yesterday, separate hearings were held in the House Oversight Committee and the Ways and Means Committee to examine the impact of the ACA on small businesses and the economy. It is unclear at this time whether or how the House leadership will move forward with legislation to replace the ACA if the law were repealed.
State Update
The Supreme Court ruling leaves the fate of the ACA's Medicaid expansion in the hands of state governors and/or state legislatures. ACS CAN is fully committed to the Medicaid expansion as a way to increase access to lifesaving cancer care, and will provide advocacy staff tools and resources to make the case for health care coverage for individuals at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level as called for in the ACA.
The ACA Medicaid expansion will provide more than 17 million people with access to comprehensive health care coverage that includes proven cancer prevention and early detection measures, cancer treatment, and follow up care. In the coming weeks, ACS CAN staff will be conducting webinars, developing and disseminating backgrounders and fact sheets, and assisting Divisions in efforts to engage policy makers in governor's offices, Medicaid agencies and state legislatures to make the moral and fiscal case for the Medicaid expansion.
An interactive map tracking where states stand on Medicaid expansion was prepared by the Center for American Progress based a new Urban Institute brief: "Opting Out of the Medicaid Expansion under the ACA: How Many Uninsured Adults Would not Be Eligible for Medicaid?" A similar map prepared by the Advisory Board denotes which states party to lawsuits challenging the ACA. You may also be interested in the Kaiser Family Foundation's chart detailing state-by-state adoption of key Medicaid options provided by the ACA.
The Supreme Court decision also means that many states that had adopted a "wait and see" approach on establishing health insurance exchanges may be spurred into action. This could lead to summer and fall special sessions in several state legislatures.
We encourage you to reach out to the State and Local Campaigns team with any questions or immediate concerns regarding the impact of the court ruling in your state.
Media Coverage of the Supreme Court Decision
A big congratulations to Division media advocacy, advocacy, and communications staff for your efforts to ensure patient voices were heard in the days leading up to and following the Supreme Court decision. We appreciate your understanding as you waited for the template materials from ACS CAN on the morning of the decision, and your great work with your local media. The payoff has been tremendous as you will see in the attached spreadsheet. We continue to see media coverage that reflects the decision's impact through the eyes of people with cancer. The Society and ACS CAN's efforts to improve access to health care were also prominently mentioned.
SCOTUS Decision ACA Coverage.xlsx
We anticipate that media requests for comment and patient stories will continue. In addition, there will be many opportunities in the coming months to engage the media regarding our efforts to implement the law effectively for cancer patients and their families. We encourage you to be proactive and let us know what materials and/or guidance would be helpful. Please contact Nicole Bender ([email protected]) if there is anything we can do to assist you with media outreach. Thank you again for all of your hard work.
Preventive Services in Medicare
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Wednesday that more than 16 million Medicare recipients received at least one free preventive service during the first six months of 2012, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Of those that accessed the free preventive services, 1.35 million took advantage of the Annual Wellness Visit provided under the law.
Cost has historically been a barrier to access for seniors seeking prevention services. The ACA removes all cost sharing including deductibles and co-pays for benefits such as mammography and colonoscopies, a provision ACS CAN fought hard to include in the final law. For more information, see the ACS CAN fact sheet and HHS' a summary of what's covered.
As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families
Chris Hansen | President
ACS Cancer Action Network | American Cance