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3-22-12 Affordable Care Act Update
March 22, 2012
Two Years Later, Patient Protections in Affordable Care Act Benefitting Families Affected by Cancer
Two years ago tomorrow, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law with key provisions that are improving access to quality, affordable health care for people with cancer and those at risk of developing the disease.
These provisions include critical patient protections that:
· Ban pre-existing condition exclusions that are used to deny lifesaving coverage to people with cancer;
· Eliminate annual and lifetime benefit limits that can cut off access to critical cancer care;
· Enable children with a history of chronic disease such as cancer to stay on their parents’ health plan until age 26;
· Prohibit insurers from charging people more for coverage because they have a condition such as cancer;
· Refocus the health care system on disease prevention and early detection; and
· Require insurers to provide consumers with brief, easy-to-understand information about their plan.
The American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), support these provisions because of the Society’s own peer-reviewed studies showing that the uninsured are more likely than those with insurance to be diagnosed with cancer at advanced stages, and are less likely to survive the disease. Our organizations are working to ensure that these and other critical provisions are implemented and protected in a way that works for people with cancer.
The anniversary comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments next week on the constitutionality of some provisions of the law, including the requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance coverage. The Society and ACS CAN, along with the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association, jointly filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court arguing that the “individual responsibility” provision of the law is critical to sustaining patient protections that are so important to people with cancer and their families. The Society and ACS CAN hope that the individual responsibility requirement is upheld so provisions that are improving access to quality, affordable health care can be successfully implemented.
Improving access to health care for people with cancer is critical to achieving the Society’s lifesaving mission, and it is the backbone of virtually everything the Society and ACS CAN do. I invite you to learn more about our efforts in support of the law’s patient protections by visiting the Access to Care community on The Link, which contains the latest communications materials on the Society and ACS CAN’s efforts. Additional resources are also available at fightcancer.org/healthcare. Finally, the Society’s consumer-friendly guide, The Affordable Care Act: How It Helps People With Cancer and Their Families, is available online and in print in English and Spanish through Ariba.
As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families
ACA Anniversary LM-FINAL.docx
Chris Hansen | President
ACS Cancer Action Network | American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc.