Access to Health Insurance

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As Congress considers changes to the Affordable Care Act, it is critically important that lawmakers maintain the patient protections that are so important to cancer patients and survivors, and ensure insurance coverage is truly affordable.  

We can never go back to the day when cancer patients couldn’t get health insurance coverage because they exceeded a lifetime limit or are denied coverage just because they survived cancer.  And, we must ensure they don’t experience any gap in their health insurance coverage and that their policies are truly affordable.

A study conducted by the American Cancer Society showed that people who are uninsured or underinsured are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at its more advanced stages when treatment is more expensive and patients are more likely to die from the disease.

Latest Updates

March 14, 2024
Georgia

The Georgia Senate passed H.B. 1339 today, which in part forms a health care coverage commission. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) urges Georgia lawmakers to recognize the study commission as an insufficient solution for the health care coverage gap that currently puts more than 400,000 Georgians at risk.

March 13, 2024
Wisconsin

Statement from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Wisconsin Government Relations Director Sara Sahli MADISON, Wis. – “As lawmakers close the 2023/2024 legislative session, their policies on easing the burden of cancer are decidedly mixed for the nearly 40,000 Wisconsinites who

March 11, 2024
Kansas

Kansas Lawmakers, Last week volunteers from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) were in the Statehouse meeting with their lawmakers and reminding them that cancer is a public policy priority. In 2024, an estimated 16,640 Kansans will hear the words, “You have cancer”, another 5,660 will lose

March 6, 2024
Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – March 6, 2024 – The Florida legislature passed a bill late Tuesday that expands patient access to biomarker testing, a key tool used by physicians to identify the most effective treatment of cancer and other diseases.

Access to Health Insurance Resources

Cancer patients and survivors must balance reducing their health care costs with ensuring they have comprehensive coverage of services, treatments, and care providers.

Short-term limited duration (STLD) insurance plans do not provide the kind of comprehensive insurance coverage cancer patients need.  These plans were designed only as temporary coverage and are not subject to the same Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements as other health insurance products on the market.  As a result, an enrollee who was attracted to the plan’s lower premiums may find – if they are diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer – that the plan does not cover all of their necessary cancer treatments.  In these cases, the consumer can be left with catastrophic costs.

Many patients with complex diseases like cancer find it difficult to afford their treatments – even when they have health insurance.  Current law establishes a limit on what most private insurance plans can require enrollees to pay in out-of-pocket costs.  These limits protect patients from extremely high costs and are essential to any health care system that works for cancer patients and survivors.