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Massachusetts: 10-9-09 This Week in Health Care Reform
October 13, 2009
On Capitol Hill
On Thursday morning, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) announced its "score" of the Senate Finance Committee’s health reform bill, indicating that the revised measure would cost $829 billion, provide coverage to 29 million more U.S. residents and reduce the federal budget deficit by $81 billion in its first 10 years. The Finance panel is expected to pass the measure early next week.
Meanwhile, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Thursday that she is going to send the three different House bills to the CBO for analysis. All three versions include a government-sponsored insurance plan – unlike the Senate Finance measure. After the CBO scores the House bills, Democratic leaders and the House Rules Committee will assemble a bill for floor consideration. Leadership has determined that the earliest it could bring a bill to the floor for a vote is the week of October 19.
At ACS CAN, we are optimistic about the developments of the past days. In their current forms, the bills mean huge improvements in the lives of cancer patients and everyday Americans – ensuring that no one will be denied coverage or charged a higher premium because of pre-existing medical conditions; placing an increased emphasis on prevention; and eliminating annual and lifetime dollar caps on benefits. These are enormous steps forward and the only way to benefit from this progress is to keep the process moving forward in order to pass health care reform legislation this year.
ACS CAN Priority: A Focus on Affordability
A topic I want to focus on this week is affordability. As you know, this is one of our main priorities for health care reform. For those who may have missed my update last week, ACS CAN, along with some of our key partners, sent a letter to Capitol Hill asking senators to consider crucial affordability issues by limiting variations between people’s premium rates that could stem from age and other health and wellness factors, capping the price of premiums and other costs for insurance for low- and middle-class Americans, and ensuring that coverage is adequate.
While there is generally bipartisan support to provide subsidies for lower income individuals and families in order to significantly reduce the number of uninsured and underinsured people, opinions vary as to what “affordable” means. While each of the bills under consideration differ in how much they would subsidize premiums and out-of-pocket costs, we do know that a family of three people with an income of approximately $73,000 could end up paying as much as 23 percent to 28 percent (approx. $16,800 to $20,400) of their total income in health care costs in the event that they have a serious disease like cancer.
ACS CAN and a large number of other groups representing patients and consumers believe that these costs are much too high to be considered “affordable” and we remain steadfastly committed to working to improve the affordability provisions as the bills move to floor votes in the coming weeks.
Wellness Discounts Could Put Cancer Patients at a Disadvantage
This week there has been much discussion about whether employers should be allowed to increase health care premiums for workers who engage in unhealthy behaviors or live with health conditions such as obesity. This issue has been raised several times in the context of the health care reform debate and ACS CAN, along with partners including the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association, has taken a strong stand against such policies, which raise the costs of health care for people who need it most.
On Wednesday morning, Dick Woodruff, ACS CAN's senior director of federal relations, argued on National Public Radio that premium "discounts" for healthy behaviors amount to penalties against less healthy people and defeat one of the central goals for health care reform – to give all Americans access to quality care, regardless of pre-existing conditions. Dick made the same argument in the New York Times in a piece that ran Friday (click here). ACS CAN and the American Cancer Society strongly support employer wellness programs that encourage healthy behaviors, provided those programs do not penalize less healthy employees with higher health care premiums. We continue to work with our partners to oppose giving insurers and employers another way to cherry pick for healthy people and price unhealthy people out of the health insurance market.
Michelle’s Law
Until now, health insurance companies have been able to drop a student from their parents’ health care plan if he or she is not enrolled in college full time – even if that student has a serious and debilitating illness such as cancer. Today, thanks to the dedicated parents of Michelle Morse working together with ACS CAN, a new law goes into effect allowing seriously ill or injured college students to take up to 12 months of leave without losing coverage under their parents’ policy.
Michelle Morse was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer in December 2003, one week shy of her 21st birthday. Despite recommendations from her doctors, Michelle continued a full course load while undergoing treatment so she could keep her insurance coverage. While Michelle lost her battle to cancer, her parents continue to fight for her. Michelle’s Law is truly a victory for the cancer community and is one more step in the right direction for health care reform.
Around the Country
As the health care reform debate continues in Washington, D.C., ACS CAN is doing its part in the field with the "4x4 Campaign" – hosting grassroots, advocacy and fundraising activities during the four weeks between Sept. 27 and Oct. 19. On Wednesday night, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network hosted a public health care reform panel at the Henderson Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev., with representatives from the American Heart Association, AARP Nevada and Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield. The Las Vegas Sun interviewed panelist Wendy Selig, Vice President for External Affairs and Strategic Alliances, who was quoted saying, ACS CAN looks at health care reform “through the eyes of a cancer patient. Sixty percent of cancer deaths today could be prevented based on what we already know.”
Thanks, as always, for all you do.
Dan