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3-5-10 This Week in Health Care Reform

ON CAPITOL HILL

 

Health care reform legislation continues to evolve as the White House and the Congress work to map out bill language, scheduling, and procedures for moving legislation toward final votes.  The President, building on his proposed health insurance reform outline unveiled before last week's bipartisan meeting with members of Congress, decided this week to incorporate four additional Republican policy proposals that were discussed during the meeting.  Bill language on the outline and the additional changes is not yet available for analysis, but is expected shortly as the Congressional leadership prepares to send the bill to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) so that it can be scored before the House and Senate take it up.

 

While the timing of Congressional votes is fluid, the President called on Congress to take up or down votes in the coming weeks.  Votes may commence in the House as soon as March 18th and could wrap up in the Senate prior to the Congress leaving for a two-week spring recess on March 26th.  The voting will be a multi-step process, with the House expected to vote first on passage of the bill the Senate passed last December.  After that, the House, followed by the Senate, would vote on the Congressional and White House negotiated changes to that bill; this would be a "reconciliation" bill, and would require a simple majority of votes in the House and Senate. 

 

GRASSROOTS UPDATE

 

It’s been just over a week since the launch of the ACS CAN healthcare petition.  Initially, our goal was to collect 50,000 signatures, and as we’ve already collected an impressive 49,072, we are clearly on our way to exceeding our own high expectations!  This proves once again that people with cancer and their families are hungry for meaningful reform and want to see action now, not later. 

 

In addition to promoting the petition via email, we are using several strategies to ensure the petition reaches as large an audience as possible.  These approaches include an ACS CAN media advocacy team press release to health policy reporters in Washington, D.C., as well as national media outlets to announce the launch of the petition campaign; promoting the petition through outreach to social media; and engaging the State Lead Ambassadors to promote the petition within their own networks.  Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) chapters, which have been an integral voice in the fight for meaningful health care reform from the beginning, have spent the past week tirelessly encouraging fellow students, friends, family, and faculty to sign and share the petition. It was also promoted on the CAC nationwide conference call and in the March newsletter, and virally through its 1,700 Facebook members and their Twitter feed. 

 

We intend to collect signatures until mid-March, after which we will deliver the petitions to lawmakers.  If you haven’t done so already, I urge you to sign on, and use the subsequent ‘tell-a-friend’ feature to promote it to your networks. 

 

IN THE STATES

In the states, the battle continues to protect funding for local safety net programs in cancer control that help to screen and treat those individuals who are uninsured or underinsured.  Maine took a page from federal health care reform efforts with L.D. 1620, which would make it illegal for insurers in the state to enforce lifetime caps on benefits paid to health insurance policyholders. The bipartisan bill was introduced by a Democrat and has received significant support from Republicans as it now waits for a full House vote.

 

 

Molly Daniels

Interim President

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

 



Massachusetts Updates

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