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
8-2-12 Affordable Care Act Update
August 3, 2012
Federal Update
Provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that require new private health plans to cover specific women's preventive services at no cost to patients took effect on August and include services important to preventing cancer and catching it early, such as annual well-women visits and testing for a virus that can cause cervical cancer. The benefits were recommended by a panel convened by the Institute of Medicine at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services. Health insurers must begin covering the benefits on the first day of the new plan year for non-grandfathered health plans.
ACS CAN volunteer and breast cancer survivor Anne Creech joined HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and other officials at a press conference in the US Capitol to mark the enactment of the new requirements. Creech is a three-time cancer survivor from Holland, Ohio, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1982 and now proudly uses her voice to fight for policies that protect cancer patients and their families. Read the ACS CAN press release.
State Update
The ACS CAN State and Local Campaigns team will be in Chicago from August 6-9 for the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) to engage legislators from all 50 states in discussions regarding the establishment and implementation of state exchanges, the state process for selecting essential health benefit benchmark plans, and Medicaid expansion. Discussions will also be held around many other priority areas issues, including tobacco control, physical activity, diet and nutrition, colon cancer, and quality of life. The opening day of the NCSL conference is also when ACS CAN will officially unveil its 10th annual How Do You Measure Up? report. State legislators from both political parties eagerly seek out the publication to see how their respective states rate on priority cancer issues.
As always, thank you for all you do every day to support laws and policies that help cancer patients and their families.
Chris Hansen | President
ACS Cancer Action Network | American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc.