Letter: Bill supports biomarker testing
This letter originally ran in the Lincoln Journal Star.
News
8-7-09 This Week in Health Care Reform
August 7, 2009
ON CAPITOL HILL
August is proving to be an intense and energetic time surrounding health care reform. As you are aware, members of the House of Representatives left Washington, D.C. last week to begin the August recess. The Senate is slated to wrap up its work today, but legislative action on health care reform will pick up post-recess when Congress returns in September.
Throughout August the focus will shift from Washington to individual congressional districts, where members will hold listening sessions or town halls to discuss health care reform. ACS CAN is activating grassroots advocacy volunteers across the country to urge lawmakers to move forward and support the enactment of meaningful health care reform for cancer patients.
It is critical to note the significant progress that has already been made and to understand the next steps ACS CAN is undertaking this month:
The House and Senate bills currently under consideration in Congress represent real progress from the status quo for people with cancer by guaranteeing insurance coverage, eliminating preexisting health conditions, and doing away with arbitrary annual and lifetime dollar limits on benefits.
We are also making progress on the issue of affordability. Before leaving town last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee accepted several amendments to protect the bill’s premium subsidies for low- and middle-income people. ACS CAN will continue to work aggressively to strengthen these provisions.
ACS CAN can only work to improve the bills if the legislative process keeps moving, which is why ACS CAN advocacy volunteers will tell lawmakers throughout the congressional recess that progress must continue on health care reform.
ACS CAN encourages advocates to take action in August by attending congressional listening sessions or town halls on health care reform, meeting with members of Congress to continue to make the case for health care reform from the cancer perspective, and conducting other grassroots activities urging that lawmakers keep moving the process forward.
As the media have reported, district events on health care reform are triggering strong emotions from people on both sides of the debate. I encourage ACS CAN advocates to be visible, speak up and take this opportunity to provide the perspective of cancer patients and survivors on why we need health care reform NOW, not later. You can contact the ACS CAN grassroots team if you need talking points or help planning activities and events.
A FOCUS ON QUALITY OF LIFE
In the past two weeks, I have provided a regular feature detailing specifics on the progress being made on ACS CAN’s priorities for health care reform. I have already highlighted prevention and availability as priorities in supporting reform. This week’s focus is on quality of life.
Delivery of quality patient-centered care is a priority to maintain quality of life, improve clinical care and patient and family satisfaction, and reduce costs. Quality patient care includes care planning, communication and counseling to establish clear goals of care and help patients and their loved ones select treatments that meet those goals.
The House and Senate proposals both include development of quality care measures
The House and Senate proposals explicitly include pain research, education, training and awareness.
The bills also include payment incentives
Both bills include provisions to improve patient understanding about the role of advance directives and other end-of-life care planning tools.
A provision in the House bill has sparked accusations that the bill promotes euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. This is absolutely false. The Society has long supported communication between a patient and physician about planning and delivering end-of-life care in accordance with the patient’s wishes. encouraging health care professionals to provide coordinated, high-quality patient-centered care, as well as extensive education, training and career awards to build the multidisciplinary health care workforce necessary to provide this care. These provisions come directly from ACS CAN’s National Pain Care Policy Act (S 660/HR 756). that better integrate pain and symptom management, care planning, and counseling as part of treatment, particularly in the context of chronic disease management.
As always, I look forward to keeping you informed through these weekly emails, other email updates, regular staff conference calls and podcasts. For more information, you can also visit fightcancer.org/healthcare or contact Erin O'Neill, senior director for Grassroots at [email protected] or 202-661-5716.
Thanks, as always, for all you do.
Dan
P.S. Follow us on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/acscan for the latest health care reform updates.