A new weekly roundup of policy news affecting the cancer community. In order to bring you the latest cancer-related health care policy and news, we are combining our ACA Updates and What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) content into a weekly email and blog post. We aim to make this a concise, one-stop summary of what you need to know as we continue working together to make cancer care better for everyone. [...]

What Caught Our Eye (WCOE), is our week-in-review blog series. “The True Cost of Cheap Health Insurance” — Any day now, the Trump administration is expected to release new regulations to make short-term health-insurance plans last a lot longer. In a fact sheet about the forthcoming changes, the administration said it wants to extend access to the plans—which now expire after three months, and offer too few services to qualify for the [...]

In February, the Trump administration released proposed rules that would loosen regulations on short-term limited-duration health insurance coverage. Short-term plans are very concerning as they are not subject to the ACA’s critical patient protections that have helped so many Americans, including millions of cancer patients. These plans can deny coverage due to a preexisting condition or charge people more based on their health status, [...]

Earlier this week, Iowa passed a law allowing the sale of health plans that are not subject to the important patient protection rules and regulations contained in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The law includes very specific carveout language that basically selects the Iowa Farm Bureau to partner with a designated insurance company (Wellmark) to offer so-called “health benefit plans” with no preexisting condition or essential health benefit protections. [...]