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2-10-11 Affordable Care Act Update
February 11, 2011
Below is this week’s update on the Affordable Care Act. As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families.
Next Week in Congress
Next week the House of Representatives will bring a temporary funding resolution to the floor in an attempt to make deep cuts in domestic spending for the remainder of the current fiscal year (FY 2011). House leaders have said that an amendment will be offered during floor consideration to eliminate all funding for continued implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This decision comes as no great surprise, and although this amendment ,as well as efforts to make deep cuts in domestic programs are likely to pass the House, there is very little chance that they will pass the Senate without being modified. We will keep you apprised of the ongoing debate and vote scheduled for next week.
Governors Seek More Flexibility
On Monday, 21 of the nation’s 29 Republican governors sent a letter to US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to appeal for more flexibility in establishing and operating the state health insurance exchanges. The governors made six specific requests, including having more of a say in which insurers are allowed in the states’ marketplace and waiving coverage mandates in favor of granting states the authority to establish what benefits are covered.
ACS CAN will continue to engage state legislators and policy makers to ensure that provisions in the law that are helping cancer patients and their families remain intact. In addition, ACS CAN is working to protect hard-won state guarantees for coverage of screening, early detection, and treatment.
Read a story from Politico, a Wall Street Journal op ed by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who signed the letter, and an op ed by Secretary Sebelius published in today’s Washington Post, that argues the Affordable Care Act empowers states.
Legal Challenges
This week, the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals granted an expedited review in the Michigan-based challenge to Affordable Care Act. In that case, a federal judge upheld the constitutionality of the law, and plaintiffs are appealing. Oral arguments are likely to occur at the end of May or beginning of June in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oral arguments had already been set for May 10-13 in another major challenge to the law, which was brought in Virginia and will go in front of the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Although the Attorney General of Virginia has requested an emergency review from the US Supreme Court, most legal experts believe that the Supreme Court will wait until the Circuit Courts rule before taking the case. For news reports looking at how the Supreme Court may rule, read The New York Times story and listen to analysis from NPR. Also of interest, an editorial from The Des Moines Register and an op ed by Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe.
As the cases move through the judiciary, the Society and ACS CAN will continue to defend provisions of the law that are improving access to adequate and affordable health coverage for people with cancer and their families -– provisions that reflect priorities adopted by our organizations long before the current health care debate began. Read the joint friend-of-the-court brief the Society, ACS CAN, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association filed in the Michigan appeal.
Prevention Grants
HHS announced yesterday the allotment of $750 million for fiscal year 2011 for prevention programs that are critical to the fight against cancer. This is the second year funds have been allocated from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which was created by the Affordable Care Act. Read the ACS CAN statement.
HHS has also posted new fact sheets detailing how $500 million from the Prevention and Public Health Fund in the 2010 fiscal year were allocated in every state.
Christopher W. Hansen
President
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)