ACS CAN advocates for policies that provide access to treatments and services people with cancer need for their care - including those who may be newly diagnosed, in active treatment and cancer survivors.
This Survivor Views survey examined access to and affordability of cancer care. Survivors report insurance-related barriers to obtaining prescriptions, and lower-income respondents in particular have difficulty affording them. 24% of respondents have received a surprise medical bill, 60% of which were more than $500.
This Survivor Views survey examined cancer symptoms and side effects, including pain, and use of palliative/ supportive services. Cancer survivors report many physical and emotional side effects during and after treatment, but use of solutions to address those symptoms is lagging. Survivors prescribed opioids often encounter barriers to obtaining them.
This ACS CAN report focuses specifically on the costs of cancer borne by patients in active treatment as well as survivors. It examines the factors contributing to the cost of cancer care, the type of direct costs patients pay, and the indirect costs associated with cancer.
Biological drugs, commonly referred to as biologics, are a class of drugs that are produced using a living system, such as a microorganism, plant cell, or animal cell. Like all drugs, biologics are regulated by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
For an individual with specific health care needs – like cancer patients and survivors – the drugs covered by a health plan and corresponding cost sharing for each drug is important information when choosing health insurance. However, to make an informed choice, formulary information must be disclosed to the individual.
Cancer patients and survivors must balance reducing their health care costs with ensuring they have comprehensive coverage of services, treatments, and care providers.
The incidence of cancer increases with age and thus the Medicare program is vitally important to millions of Americans who are undergoing active cancer treatment, are cancer survivors or who have not yet developed cancer.
What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?
During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
Cancer patients and survivors must balance reducing their health care costs with ensuring they have comprehensive coverage of services, treatments, and care providers.
ACS CAN submitted comments strongly supporting several policy changes that will make it easier to apply for, enroll in, and maintain enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP.
ACS CAN submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding its 2022 Request for Information on Access to Coverage and Care in Medicaid & CHIP. Our comments address suggested improvements in Medicaid enrollment and eligibility determination, transitions of coverage, national standards for access to care, and the eventual end of the public health emergency and continuous coverage provisions.
ACS CAN submitted comments in support of the renewal of Oregon's 1115 Medicaid waiver, including the state's proposal of continuous coverage provisions for children and adults. However, ACS CAN strongly objects to the state's proposal to limit Medicaid coverage of drugs approved through the accelerated approval process, and urges CMS to reject this part of the waiver request.
