Share

2-19-10 This Week in Health Care Reform

ON CAPITOL HILL

As you all know from news reports, President Obama is working to break the impasse on health care reform by inviting congressional leaders to a White House summit next Thursday to discuss the possibility of coming to a bipartisan agreement that would permit health care reform legislation to move forward with Republican support.  Yesterday the White House announced that it would post its preferred legislation on the Web next Monday, 72 hours in advance of the summit, and has asked Republicans to bring their proposals to the table as well.  While Republicans have expressed misgivings about the President’s sincerity in seeking a bipartisan solution, it is widely expected that they will attend and participate.

The open question now is what happens after the summit.  It is difficult to believe that having taken the political risk of calling for the meeting in the first place, the President would give up on health care reform if no bipartisan agreement is forthcoming.   The media and others are speculating that there will be a strong push from the White House to move forward on a specific piece of legislation in March.  As always, stay tuned.

GRASSROOTS UPDATE

ACS CAN had a very productive President’s Day recess, as volunteers around the country held district visits with Members of Congress and their staff to continue to urge them to act now, not later on meaningful health care reform.  Members will return to Washington next week, and patch-through calls to targeted Senate offices will resume on Tuesday in advance of the President’s health care summit on Thursday.

Last week, we alluded to an upcoming nationwide petition drive around health care reform, and I am pleased to be able to share more details.  The petition will launch next Wednesday at healthcarepetition.org, and will carry a simple message to Congress: Health care reform can’t wait.  It’s time to act.  Over the next few weeks, we will work on-line and off-line to gather tens of thousands of signatures from across the country, with an emphasis on targeted Senators.  The online petition will be promoted not only on acscan.org, but also via emails, social networking, blog and search ads, and other means.  An off-line petition will be launched on Wednesday too, as a way to continue to engage ACS CAN’s volunteers in our campaign efforts.  Petitions will be gathered for the next several weeks, with an eye toward delivery in Washington DC and at events in targeted states during the next Congressional recess.

REPORTS IN THE NEWS

Anthem Blue Cross recently made news when it announced rate increases of up to 39 percent for Californians who pay for their own insurance coverage. People in the individual market in other states are also facing skyrocketing premiums. Yesterday, the Health and Human Services Department released a report showing that insurance companies are requesting premium hikes of between 23 percent and 56 percent in states including California, Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, and Rhode Island. Insurance companies say the increases are necessary because of the growing costs of health care. But the HHS report notes that "some of the premium increases requested by insurance companies are 5 to 10 times larger than the growth rate in national health expenditures."

 

Also yesterday, the Kaiser Family Foundation released a report showing that nearly 3.3 million more people were enrolled in Medicaid programs last June, during the height of the national recession, than a year earlier. The annual increase is the largest ever, and it marked the first time in decades that every state reported an increase in Medicaid enrollment.

 

The results of both of these reports are disturbing but not surprising. We know from the stories collected every day through the Society's Health Insurance Assistance Service (HIAS) that people with cancer who lose their jobs or cannot work face enormous odds finding insurance on their own. Often they are charged far more than they can afford for insurance or are denied coverage altogether. Medicaid is an option if they meet often restrictive income requirements; otherwise, they are left to fend for themselves and their families. Meaningful health care reform would significantly improve the health care system by making insurance more accessible and affordable, ensuring that no one is denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and emphasizing patients' quality of life.

IN THE STATES

This week, ACS CAN won a reversal of an adverse breast and cervical coverage decision in Tennessee.  Through HIAS, ACS CAN learned that Tennessee had wrongfully denied Medicaid coverage to a B&C patient because she had an Aflac cancer-only policy, which should not have precluded her from Medicaid as the state contended.  While ACS CAN did not legally represent the patient, we worked through our Judicial Advocacy Initiative to make Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) (the DC federal agency) aware of her case as an example of a practice that could have affected many other women in the state.  At CMS's request, Tennessee performed a comprehensive review of their records and found that this was an isolated case, but they did reinstate the patient’s eligibility for Medicaid, which may be life-saving for this patient.  We are very pleased with the reinstatement and to know that CMS takes access to Medicaid for women with breast and cervical cancer very seriously.  ACS CAN will continue to monitor the B&C screening and treatment programs to ensure the enforcement of all the related laws and regulations as part of our ongoing effort to improve access to care even as we fight for broader, meaningful health care reform.

 

State sessions are also beginning to show results thanks to the hard work of staff and volunteers on the state level who are quickly ramping up efforts while they wait on Congress to take action at the federal level.  A clinical trials bill based on ACS model legislation has passed in both the Iowa House and Senate and will be signed by the Governor on Tuesday. Also, Ohio recently introduced colorectal cancer screening legislation that guarantees private insurance coverage according to ACS guidelines. Almost one-third of Ohio's House is already signed on as bill co-sponsors in a bipartisan show of support.

 

As always, thank you for all you do every day for cancer patients and their families.

 

Molly

 

Molly Daniels

Interim President

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network



Connecticut Updates

ACS CAN provides this webpage for the convenience of the American Cancer Society.
Unless specifically noted otherwise, the Society, and not ACS CAN, is conducting the activities described on this page.