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Affordable Care Update 12.18.2014
January 17, 2015
 This message is being sent via blind copy to, Division Senior Leadership Team (EVPs, SVPs, and VPs), Corporate Center Functional Leaders, Community Engagement and Partner Relationships Senior Directors, All Health Systems Staff, ACS CAN Field Staff and ACS CAN National Staff.
New Health Insurance Marketplace Enrollment Numbers Released According to enrollment numbers released Dec. 30 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), nearly 6.5 million individuals selected insurance plans or were automatically re-enrolled in the federal marketplaces since open enrollment began on Nov. 15. HHS enrollment numbers do not factor in those who signed up for plans through a state-based marketplace because those figures are not yet available. The cumulative total of enrolled individuals is certain to be significantly higher than 6.5 million. Society and ACS CAN Host Affordable Care Act Webinar The Society and ACS CAN hosted a live nationwide webinar Dec. 16 about enterprise-wide efforts to educate consumers about critical ACA provisions that are improving access to quality, affordable health care for people with cancer and their families. I joined Society and ACS CAN CEO John Seffrin to discuss the mission-critical importance of improving access to lifesaving care and ensuring that people with cancer and their families are aware of the law’s patient protections. Nearly 1,000 Society and ACS CAN staff joined the webinar to hear an overview of how ACA provisions are improving access to care. Staff then had the option to join one of three breakout sessions featuring staff leaders including Society Chief Cancer Control Officer Richard Wender. Unfortunately, technical issues made portions of the breakout sessions difficult if not impossible to hear. Please visit the Access to Care community on Society Source for information and materials about the law, and feel free to direct your colleagues there as well. A recording of the webinar will soon be posted, and additional questions can be sent to [email protected] via Outlook.
On Dec. 13, more than two months into the fiscal year, Congress passed a budget (the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015) that funds a majority of the federal government for the remainder of the fiscal year until the end of Sept. 2015. NIH will receive a $150 million increase (0.5 percent), bringing the NIH budget back above $30 billion in FY15. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) will receive $4.95 billion, an increase of more than $27 million (0.6 percent), but far less than the funding level included in the original Senate appropriations bill submitted in July. It also falls well below the 2.2 percent projected inflation rate for 2015. While the funding provided for research and prevention comes nowhere close to meeting the needs of cancer researchers and the healthcare community, it is worth noting that within the constraints of the bill, cancer was treated as a priority. Funding for cancer programs at the CDC actually increases under the bill, which has not occurred in recent years. ACS CAN fought for and won language in the bill that provides greater flexibility to National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program grantees concerning their use of CDC funding. ACS CAN’s efforts also made it possible for NCI funding to keep pace with increases in the overall NIH budget for the first time in four years and only the third time in 18 years. The decisions made within the CDC and NIH portions of the legislation indicate that our message resonated with Congress.
Final Rules Announced for Menu Labeling and Vending Machine Labeling The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its long-awaited final rule Nov. 25 on requirements for menu labeling in chain restaurants and calorie labeling on chain vending machines. ACS CAN strongly supported the ACA provision requiring menu labeling, and we submitted comments on the draft regulations and joined our partners in sending a letter to the president advocating for a strong final rule. The final regulations are strong, stronger than the proposed regulations, which is a testament to the work of the public health community to explain to the Administration the importance of sharing this type of nutrition information with the American people. We were especially pleased that in addition to restaurants and convenience stores, movie theaters and amusement parks were included, but it’s important to note that some gaps remain with certain foods and venues.
Defense Authorization Act Limits Military's Ability to Enact Effective Tobacco Control Policy The Defense Authorization Act, signed into law Dec. 19, will have both a detrimental and a positive impact on the military’s tobacco control efforts. ACS CAN is pleased that the law includes an important provision that would promote tobacco cessation by eliminating substantial price discounts currently applied to tobacco products sold at commissaries and exchanges. At the same time, we are extremely disappointed that the law will prohibit any new policy banning the sale of tobacco products sold in defense retail establishments or on vessels at sea. This law will interfere with the military’s efforts to protect the health of the men and women who serve our country by tying the hands of armed services leadership and making it impossible to enact a tobacco sales ban. As a result, no branch of the military will have the freedom to enact such a policy that could reduce initiation of tobacco use and motivate tobacco users to quit. New Report Reveals States Woefully Underfund Tobacco Control Programs ACS CAN, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights released the 16th annual Broken Promises to Our Children report on Dec. 11. According to the report, which tracks state spending on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, states are still falling short when it comes to protecting kids from tobacco. For example, in Fiscal Year 2015, states will collect $25.6 billion from the tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes. However, they will spend less than two cents of every tobacco dollar to prevent kids from becoming addicted to tobacco and help adults quit. The inadequate funding levels of tobacco prevention programs across the country are inexcusable because we know these programs work – they prevent kids from smoking, they save lives and they save money by reducing health care costs. ACS CAN Submits Comments on FDA's Proposed Rule ACS CAN joined with 23 other organizations in submitting extensive comments to the FDA on the long-awaited proposed rule giving the agency authority over various tobacco products. In addition, ACS CAN filed its own comments emphasizing two additional points: asking the FDA to consider additional warning labels on the health effects, beyond addiction, of proposed deemed products that combust tobacco, specifically water pipe and pipe tobacco; and calling for the restriction on sales to children under age 18 of components, parts, or accessories of a tobacco product that are “part of a finished tobacco product or intended or expected for consumer use in the consumption of a tobacco product.”
Cancer Atlas Provides Strategies to Reduce Global Cancer Burden On Dec. 4, Society leadership released The Cancer Atlas, Second Edition, at the World Cancer Congress in Melbourne, Australia together with the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC). The data featured highlight the complex nature of the global cancer landscape, but also point to strategies that governments can use to reduce their cancer burden. This important tool highlights country-by-country strengths and weaknesses worldwide, allowing policymakers, researchers and academics to fully assess differences in risk, burden and prevention, and emphasizes the potential for improvement by closing those gaps. Recommendations for reducing cancer incidence and deaths include tobacco control and reducing disparities in access to interventions that can either prevent or effectively treat and manage cancer. The Cancer Atlas provides an important tool in support of ACS CAN’s efforts to persuade the U.S. government to thoroughly examine its global health programs and expand their mandate to include prevention and early detection of cancer and other noncommunicable diseases in low-and middle income countries. |