Statement by Christopher W. Hansen,
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) President
WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 19, 2011 – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed legislation that would repeal the Affordable Care Act, a law that includes important patient protections that are improving access to quality, affordable care for people with cancer and their families.
Following is a statement from Christopher W. Hansen, president of ACS CAN, the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society:
“Repealing the law without a meaningful alternative would bring back pre-existing condition exclusions, annual and lifetime benefit limits, rescissions of health coverage following a diagnosis and other vestiges of a health system that failed to provide adequate, affordable health care to millions of cancer patients and survivors.
“The Affordable Care Act includes provisions that ban pre-existing condition exclusions and arbitrary rescissions of coverage, eliminate lifetime limits, annual limits and the ability of insurance companies to charge more based on an applicant’s health status, and refocus the health care system on disease prevention and early detection. These and other patient protections need to be implemented and strengthened to meaningfully improve the health care system for people with cancer.
“The evidence is clear that barriers to health care lead to later-stage cancer diagnoses, which are more expensive to treat and harder to survive. Cancer patients should not be forced to choose between saving their life or their lifesavings – a proposition that many of them faced in a system that previously made access to adequate, affordable care impossible for tens of millions of Americans.
“ACS CAN is calling on the Senate and the President to uphold the critical patient protections included in this important law that collectively work to expand access to quality health care for cancer patients, survivors and their families.”
ACS CAN, the leading voice of patients in the health care debate, will continue to work to ensure that critical patient protections that affect cancer patients, survivors and caregivers are implemented as strongly as possible. For more information, visit https://www.fightcancer.org/healthcare.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Alissa Havens or Steven Weiss
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: (202) 661-5772 or (202) 661-5711
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]