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3-19-10 This Week in Health Care Reform

ON CAPITOL HILL

 

As you all know at this point, the House of Representatives will take critical votes this weekend that will move meaningful health reform closer to final enactment than at any time in decades.  On Sunday, the House will vote on the reform bill passed by the Senate right before Christmas, and then take a second vote on a package of corrections to that legislation.  If the Senate bill, which contains most of the reform measures that ACS CAN has been discussing over the past year, is passed by the House, then it will be sent to President Obama for his signature and be immediately enacted into law. Should the House also pass the corrections measure, that bill will go to the Senate for its consideration next week.  Senate leaders hope to complete action on that bill and send it to the President sometime next week before Congress adjourns for the Easter recess.

 

Momentum toward passage of both bills strengthened yesterday when the Congressional Budget Office completed its preliminary analysis of the legislation concluding that the two bills together will cost $940 billion over ten years while providing insurance coverage for 95 percent of all Americans.  In addition, they estimated that it will result in a net reduction in the overall federal deficit by $138 billion in that same time period.  CBO predicted additional savings of $1 trillion during the second decade after passage. 

 

Earlier today, I joined with Rob Youle, Chair of the ACS CAN Board of Directors, to send a letter to House Democratic and Republican leaders urging passage of the legislation based on our determination that critical provisions of the legislation will  “have the potential to make a significant contribution in the fight against cancer.  Improvements in access to quality, affordable care, if properly implemented, could help lower cancer incidence and mortality to a degree that has never before been achieved in the battle against cancer.”

 

ANALYSIS OF THE RECONCILIATION BILL

 

The reconciliation legislation that the House will vote on includes numerous changes to provisions in the bill passed by the Senate in December.  There are a number of changes that represent important improvements for cancer patients and their families.  These include an increase of $124 billion in subsidies in the health insurance exchanges; increases in funding to help states pay for the Medicaid expansion; improvements in payments to primary care physicians in Medicaid (fully funded with federal money);  closing of the "donut hole" in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, which is of real importance to cancer patients in Medicare; and extension of some important insurance reforms, such as a ban on lifetime and annual limits to "grandfathered plans" in effect the day before enactment.

 

There is one provision of potential concern.  The Senate bill establishes an Independent Payment Advisory Board, which under the Senate bill can make recommendations for savings in the Medicare program.  Under the reconciliation bill, if the Board does not make recommendations to meet savings, the Secretary of HHS has to make proportionate cuts among all Medicare providers to achieve savings targets established in the Senate bill.  Our concern is that across-the-board cuts could adversely affect the quality of care across the full continuum of services that a cancer patient might need.  This is one of numerous areas that ACS CAN will have to follow to ensure that a bill is strongly implemented to protect the needs of cancer patients.

 

GRASSROOTS UPDATE

Advocacy staff and volunteers have been busy this week delivering hard copies of the more than 56,000 petition signatures to Congressional members all over the country in advance of the House vote this weekend.  Petitions will also be delivered to the Senators next week in DC.  Additionally, patch through calls to key targets have continued this week.  Members of Congress can’t help but hear our message loud and clear: It’s time for them to come together and get the job done for cancer patients and their families. 

 

COMMUNICATIONS

 

As crucial votes in the House and Senate draw closer, advertising intended to influence the votes of lawmakers is intensifying. One group opposed to reform legislation, Americans for Prosperity, is airing an ad in several congressional districts alleging that reform would limit access to mammograms. In fact, the bill as currently written would ensure that women aged 40 and over would continue to receive lifesaving breast cancer screenings. The bill specifically invalidates the controversial U.S. Preventive Services Task Force guidelines issued in November that recommended regular breast cancer screening for women beginning at age 50. ACS CAN strongly supported the addition of this provision into the bill.

 

The New York Times reported this week that a coalition of groups that oppose reform had already spent $11 million this month on ads targeting about 40 House Democrats.  These ads assert that the country cannot afford health care reform, a claim refuted by projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showing that the final bill being considered by Congress would reduce the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the first 10 years and more than $1 trillion in the second decade.

 

Several groups that support reform legislation, including pharmaceutical companies and labor unions, are also running ads. The "ad war" promises to continue through next week, exposing the public to an onslaught of contradictory and at times misleading information about reform. During this time it is especially important to remind cancer patients, survivors, and their families that ACS CAN is focused on patients, not politics, and supports meaningful reform that would elevate prevention, guarantee access to care regardless of preexisting conditions, and emphasize patients' quality of life.

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

 

 

Molly Daniels

Interim President

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

 



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