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
12-1-11 Affordable Care Act Update
December 2, 2011
Federal Update
Super Committee
Shortly before its November 23 deadline, the bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, better known as the "super committee," announced it was unable to devise a deficit reduction plan that a majority of the committee's members could support. Under the Budget Control Act, the legislation that created the super committee, automatic across-the-board spending cuts are scheduled to begin in calendar year 2013. Cuts are to be shared equally between domestic discretionary and defense programs. Social Security, Medicaid, veterans' benefits, and other essential programs are exempt from the automatic cuts. Reductions to Medicare would be limited to 2 percent and impact providers only, with no cuts for beneficiaries. Read Kaiser Health News' "Health Leaders Prepare for Round Two of Cuts."
The across-the-board cuts are in addition to an earlier round of cuts to domestic discretionary spending called for in the Budget Control Act, which total $900 billion over 10 years. No cuts were made to Medicare and Medicaid. Funding for cancer research, prevention and early detection programs is not likely to suffer serious cuts in fiscal year 2012, but what happens in the following years is more difficult to predict. Read Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson's "A Grim Diagnosis for Our Ailing US Health Care System."
The super committee's inability to reach an agreement, however, does not rule out the possibility that Congress will find another means of achieving its spending reduction goal. Since the reductions do not take place until January 2013, Congress is expected to revisit the issue after the 2012 elections. So while the Budget Control Act saved the economy from major harm by forestalling an historic default on the nation's debt, the hardest choices are again being postponed, making it hard to predict beyond 2012 what the ultimate impact on research and other programs important to cancer patients and survivors will be. Read the Associated Press' "Congress May Try Blocking Cuts If Debt Panel Fails."
Summary of Benefits and Coverage
The lobbying arm of the insurance industry is trying to weaken regulations the Obama administration is currently developing that would make health insurers provide simple, straightforward benefits information so consumers can more easily choose the health plan that is right for them. This is an important component of administrative simplicity, one of the American Cancer Society and ACS CAN's four "A's" of meaningful health coverage. The objective is to provide all consumers with basic information they can use to compare plans and begin to understand differences in plans.
Last month, ACS CAN invited volunteers who have taken action on health care reform and access to care issues to contact the White House via www.fightcancer.org/benefits and insist that consumers take precedence over insurance companies. To date, hundreds of emails have been sent -- meaning the patient voice has been clearly articulated!
ACS CAN will continue to press the importance of this issue with the White House through a variety of advocacy tools. Our efforts will be helped by a public opinion survey released yesterday showing that the summary of benefits and coverage is the most popular provision in the Affordable Care Act among the public. The latest health tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that despite being lesser known than many other elements of the law, the summary of benefits and coverage requirement is rated as favorable by 60 percent of Americans.
Prevention: Medicare to Cover Weight Loss Counseling Without Cost Sharing
Yesterday the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that Medicare would begin covering weight loss counseling in an effort to reduce obesity. An estimated 30-plus percent of the Medicare population is obese. Under the Affordable Care Act, these services will be offered without cost sharing. Read The USA Today story.
State Update
Medical Loss Ratio
Last week the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) voted to approve a resolution recommending changes to the medical loss ratio (MLR) calculation, including having Congress take unspecified action to exclude agent and broker fees from the MLR. The resolution made a similar request to the Department of Health and Human Services. Society Division and ACS CAN state government relations staff in many states contacted their respective insurance commissioners before the vote to express their concerns. ACS CAN believes broker and agent commissions should be included in the MLR calculation so that it accurately reflects the proportion of spending by insurers on health care as opposed to administrative expenses. Removing commissions from the calculation would violate the intent of the Affordable Care Act and render the MLR meaningless to consumers. Unfortunately the resolution passed by a vote of 26-20, with several abstentions.
However, the resolution is not likely to have any impact on either Congress or HHS. There is currently no significant movement in Congress to address the issue. The request made to HHS would represent a significant and potentially illegal policy reversal, making it highly unlikely the administration will consider such a change. The final MLR regulation is expected to be published by the end of the year. Despite the outcome, insurance commissioners throughout the country are fully aware that ACS CAN advocates are very much aware of the impact their votes have on cancer patients and consumers in general. The discussion that preceded the vote was fairly contentious among the commissioners, and clearly many of them were voicing concerns they had heard from consumer groups. ACS CAN will continue to watch the situation closely to ensure the interests of cancer patients and their families are top of mind as policy decisions are made.
Exchange Grants
This week, the administration announced another round of grants to states to continue to help build the infrastructure of health benefit exchanges, the insurance marketplaces where individuals and small businesses will be able to purchase health insurance beginning in 2014. The thirteen states that were awarded a total of $220 million are: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Vermont.
Employer-Sponsored Coverage
A new Commonwealth Fund report shows that workers' share of health insurance premiums rose 63 percent between 2003 and 2010. Premiums for employer-sponsored family policies went up by 50 percent during the same time period. The state-by-state analysis also shows that costs are surpassing income growth in all states. Read the Bloomberg and CQ coverage.
As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families.
Chris
Christopher W. Hansen
President
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)