Remove Hurdles to Cancer Care

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Access to Health Care

COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the significant barriers to affordable health care that cancer patients have long faced. While relief packages and proposals to date have worked to address affordability of COVID-specific testing and treatment, policymakers must also tackle hurdles that cancer patients face like removing the red tape of prior authorization and step therapy, reducing out-of-pocket costs, and ensuring cost-sharing assistance directly benefits patients. There has been a great deal of research and investment in effective therapies that allow people fighting cancer to survive and live longer. Cancer patients need Congress to act quickly to remove hurdles to quality care.

56% of cancer patients and survivors are worried about being able to afford their treatment

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Bill to Address Breast Cancer Screening Inequities Heads to Healey’s Desk

November 4, 2024
Massachusetts

S.2971, An Act relative to medically necessary breast screenings and exams for equity and early detection requires that health plans regulated by the Commonwealth cover medically necessary screening and diagnostic breast imaging with no out- of-pocket costs.

Making the Affordable Care Act Enhanced Tax Credits Permanent Will Protect Coverage for Cancer Patients and Save Lives

September 25, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (NH) and Tammy Baldwin (WI) plan to introduce a bill, the Health Care Affordability Act of 2024, that would make permanent the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced tax credits that help make health insurance coverage affordable for an estimated 20 million people.

25 Patient and Provider Groups Applaud Supreme Court Ruling though Express Concern about Other Plaintiffs Keeping FDA Authority Challenge Alive

June 13, 2024

Our 25 organizations, representing patients with serious health conditions and disabilities and their providers, applaud the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling reversing the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine et al. v FDA et al, on the grounds that the plaintiffs don’t have standing in their challenge concerning the

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Proposed Rule is Important Step in Reducing Devastating Impact of Medical Debt

June 11, 2024
National

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a proposed rule today to lessen the impact of medical debt on an individual’s credit.

Remove Hurdles to Cancer Care Resources

Just the Facts: Where Healthcare Dollars Are Spent

April 16, 2021

Where healthcare dollars are spent compared with dollars on cancer care, 2018.

Spikes in Cost Increase the Burden of Affording Cancer Care

November 3, 2020

Cancer patients are particularly vulnerable to spikes in their health care costs because many expensive diagnostic tests and treatments are scheduled within a short period of time, so cancer patients spend their deductible and out-of-pocket maximum quickly. These costs can be difficult to manage over the course of a year, and most monthly budgets simply can’t afford these large bills. 

High Deductible Health Plans Cause Extreme Spikes in Cost

November 3, 2020

Most patients experience spikes in their health care costs around the time of a cancer diagnosis as they pay their deductible and out-of-pocket maximum. For patients on high deductible plans, this spike can mean bills due for several thousands of dollars within one month.