NCCS Applauds Resolution to Block Short-Term Insurance Plans, Protect Those with Pre-Existing Conditions
Washington, DC – NCCS applauds the efforts of Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and 30 of her colleagues to advance a resolution blocking the final rule permitting expansion of short-term plans. The final rule extending the availability of short-term plans will put more Americans at risk of purchasing junk insurance plans and will also undermine the individual insurance markets on which many people with cancer rely. “NCCS considers these new short-term plans a serious threat,” […]
Health Care Roundup: Kasich on Medicaid Expansion Success; New Cervical Cancer Screening Choices; a Nurse’s ‘Gut Feeling’; and More
Court Throws Out KY Governor’s Medicaid Countersuit — Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (R) lost a lawsuit against Medicaid recipients who are challenging the Governor’s attempt to implement Medicaid work requirements. Earlier this year, Bevin was also unsuccessful in moving forward with his plans in changing components of Medicaid expansion in the state when a federal court sided with the same Medicaid recipients. […]
Health Care Roundup: ‘Junk Insurance;’ High Costs and Forgone Care; Reinsurance; Patient Safety After Hospital Mergers
Trump Admin Continues Push to Make Short-Term Health Plans More Acceptable — On Wednesday, the Trump administration made it easier for short-term plans to reach more consumers in another move to try to halt further ACA progress. While short-term plans are inexpensive, they do not cover pre-existing conditions and the range for medical services is much more limited. […]
NCCS Statement on HHS Final Rule for Short-Term, Limited Duration Health Plans
The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) issued the following statement regarding the Trump administration’s announcement of the final rule on short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans: “NCCS is deeply concerned that the Administration’s new rule on short-term, limited-duration plans, called ‘junk insurance’ by health insurance experts, will harm cancer patients and survivors by providing inadequate coverage for cancer care […]
Health Care Roundup: “Toxic Town” in WV Battles High Cancer Rates; CMS News: Risk Adjustment, 340b, Site-Neutral Payments; Hospital Costs; More
CMS Resumes ACA Risk Adjustment Payments — The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it will continue payments—amounting to $10.4 billion—to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) risk-adjustment program. The program was established to ensure that risk is spread across insurance companies. Recently, in one of the many efforts to dismantle the ACA, CMS announced that it would halt the payments, […]
Health Care Roundup: Trump Drug Pricing Plan; HHS Cuts ACA Navigator Funding; CAR-T Therapy Coverage Issues; Biosimilar News; and More
Comment Period Closed for Trump Drug Pricing Plan — Comments for the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) drug pricing proposal were due this week. The plan, introduced by the Trump administration, outlined proposals seeking to increase competition, reduce out-of-pocket costs and incentivize better negotiations for lower drug prices. NCCS joined with other organizations of the Cancer Leadership Council (CLC) to provide comments […]
NCCS Awarded American Institutes for Research Grant to Develop New Outcome Measure: “Return to Functional Status”
UPDATE FEBRUARY 2020: Read a summary of this research project at www.canceradvocacy.org/RFS. The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) was awarded a grant from the American Institutes for Research (AIR), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to develop a new quality measure concept for “return to functional status.” NCCS will use a novel […]
NCCS Joins Cancer Leadership Council Comment Letter Regarding the Drug Pricing Blueprint “American Patients First”
The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) joined with other organizations of the Cancer Leadership Council (CLC) to provide comments regarding the Trump administration’s drug pricing blueprint, “American Patients First.” Sent to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the letter outlines the groups’ concerns and asks questions of HHS about the plan’s […]
A Medical School Perspective: Beyond the Science, We Must Learn to Communicate with Patients
By Nainika Nanda, MD — Survivorship. What does this mean? Oncology highlights patients currently battling cancer. However, survivorship encompasses a longer timeline. Cancer requires lifelong care, which is achieved through proper doctor-patient communication. In fact, this relationship is a keystone of medicine. Unfortunately, it can lose focus in the sea of information medical students must master. A common analogy for medical education is […]
Health Care Roundup: CMS Halts ACA Risk Payments, Slashes Navigator Funding; Long-Term Outcomes for Young Survivors; Drug Pricing; More
CMS Halts ACA Risk-Adjustment Payments and Cuts Funding for Health Coverage Navigators — This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced two new actions that could harm the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces and enrollment. Last Saturday, CMS announced that it would halt the risk-adjustment program, including $10 billion in payments due to insurers for costs incurred last year. […]
Health Care Roundup: Association Health Plans and ACA Repeal; Benefits of Exercise for Childhood Survivors; NIH Grant System; and More
Association Health Plans Rule Finalized – The association health plans (AHP) rule was finalized by the Labor Department as the Trump administration continues its efforts to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through regulatory action. While marketed as a way for small businesses and trade groups to sell cheaper coverage, the rule allows plans NOT to cover the ACA’s 10 “essential health benefits.” NCCS joined with the Cancer Leadership Council […]
NCCS Announces Winners of the 2018 Ellen L. Stovall Award for Innovation in Patient-Centered Cancer Care
Longtime NCCS CEO Ellen Stovall made a lasting impact on the cancer community, both personally and professionally, through her warmth, generosity, and spirit of collaboration as she worked to make cancer care better for all patients. Shortly after she died in 2016 due to cardiac complications from her cancer treatment, the National Coalition for Cancer […]
Health Care Roundup: DoJ Decision Not to Defend ACA Puts Patient Protections At Risk; “Cancer Treatment Beyond Mutant-Hunting”
HEALTH CARE HIGHLIGHTS – ACA Pre-Existing Conditions Protections are at Risk – As we reported last week, the Department of Justice (DoJ) determined that it will NOT defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the lawsuit filed by the state of Texas and several other states. In fact, the DoJ is breaking with long-held legal precedent to defend laws passed by Congress. Instead, the DoJ has decided to support the legal argument of several attorneys general […]
Health Care Roundup: DOJ Won’t Defend ACA Provisions in Court, Health Care’s Role in 2018 Midterms, and More
Administration Action Threatens Coverage for People with Pre-existing Conditions — In a court filing yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) stated that it would not defend key provisions of the Affordable Care Act in a lawsuit brought by Texas and several other states. One provision is the individual mandate, which was repealed in the tax bill passed by Congress and signed into law last December. Also at issue in the case is coverage and […]
Health Care Roundup: Virginia to Expand Medicaid, Colorectal Screening Guidelines, How the ‘Bewildering’ Health Insurance Industry Works, and More
Virginia Votes to Expand Medicaid — Both chambers of the Virginia Legislature moved a budget bill Wednesday that would expand Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The bill would make Virginia the 33rd state to expand Medicaid under Obamacare and could lead to as many as 400,000 people being newly covered. “As a doctor, I’m so proud of the significant step we’ve taken together to help Virginians get quality, affordable […]
NCCS Statement on the Passage of the STAR Childhood Cancer Act and the Right to Try Act
Silver Spring, MD – The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship issued the following statement regarding passage of both the Childhood Cancer Survivorship, Treatment, Access, and Research (STAR) Act (S. 292) and the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act (S. 204). Both are now headed to the President’s desk […]
Health Care Roundup: 2018 Cancer Status Report; Childhood Cancer STAR Act Passes; “When a Rural Hospital Shuts Down;” and More
HEALTH CARE HIGHLIGHTS – Annual Cancer Status Report Released – On Tuesday, the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer was released. This report is a collaborative effort of NCI, CDC, ACS, and NAACCR. The report includes mortality data through 2015. It shows that, from 1999 to 2015, overall cancer death rates decreased by 1.8 percent per year among men and by 1.4 percent per year among women. […]
NCCS Joins Cancer Leadership Council to Oppose Right to Try Legislation in the House
The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship joined with other organizations of the Cancer Leadership Council (CLC) in a letter to House leadership to oppose House consideration of the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act (S. 204).The legislation passed the House on May 22 and goes to the President […]
Health Care Roundup: Drug Pricing Plan, 2019 Premium Increases, Short-Term Plans, Medicare Mulls Covering Gene Therapies, and More
Trump Administration Promotes a Drug Pricing Plan – On Friday, May 11, 2018, President Trump announced a drug pricing blueprint to address prescription drug prices. Initial media coverage of the plan suggested that the blueprint failed to honor the President’s campaign commitment to negotiation of drug prices. Overall, the press and policymaker reaction to the plan was muted, with some suggesting that the plan would have limited impact. […]
Cancer Policy News Roundup: Proposed Cuts to CHIP, Association Health Plans in Farm Bill, Prescribing Exercise for Cancer Patients, and More
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: ACA Auto-Enrollment; Lack of Care Plan Implementation; Second Opinions; ‘Cancer’s New Superheroes’; More
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) is our week-in-review blog series. “Making Heath Insurance Enrollment As Automatic As Possible” — Via Health Affairs Blog — In December 2017, the Republican Congress, working with the Trump administration, repealed the tax penalties enforcing the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate, effective in 2019. Although the degree of the mandate’s efficacy is uncertain, its repeal is sure to lead to additional Americans […]
What Caught Our Eye: “The True Cost of Cheap Health Insurance;” Living with Metastatic Disease; Cancer Control in Native Populations; More
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 […]
ACA Update | Submit Your Comments on Expansion of Harmful Short-Term Health Plans Before Monday, April 23 Deadline
If you haven’t already submitted comments regarding the short-term limited-duration proposed rule, please take 5 minutes to do so before the deadline on Monday night! NCCS recently hosted a webinar on what these short-term plans mean for cancer survivors. See the webinar blog post for step-by-step instructions on how to submit comments to ensure cancer patients’ voices are heard. Another ACA development occurred this week. […]
ACA Update | How Short-Term Health Plans Would Drive Up ACA Premiums and How Advocates Can Make Their Voice Heard
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, […]
How to Voice Opposition to the Proposed Rule for Short-Term Limited Duration Coverage
Call to Action – Tell the Trump administration that short-term, limited-duration insurance plans will harm people with cancer. Participate in the public comment period on the proposed short-term insurance regulation by filing comments electronically to the Secretary of Health & Human Services. After Congress failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration launched a number of actions aimed at repealing […]
ACA Update April 6, 2018 | New Iowa Law Allows Health Plans That Exclude Preexisting Condition Protections
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. […]
WCOE: Health Care Access and Affordability; FDA’s Plans to Better Incorporate Patient Voice in Drug Development; Patient Portal Pitfalls; and More
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. — “Why Some Americans Are Risking It and Skipping Health Insurance” — In tiny Marion, North Carolina, the Buchanans decided that $1,800 a month was too much to pay for health insurance, and are going without it for the first time in their lives. […]
Patient Assistance Programs: Do They Help or Hurt?
By Rishi Sachdev and Yousuf Zafar, MD — New cancer drugs have improved prognoses for patients, but that improvement in effectiveness has come at a steep cost. The price tag of new anticancer drugs has been increasing at a significant pace, with the latest—Kymriah by Novartis—priced at $475,000 per treatment. These ever-increasing costs result in higher out-of-pocket costs for patients, which have been shown to worsen outcomes. […]
ACA Update March 23, 2018 | Congress Passes Spending Bill, Leaves Out ACA Market Stabilization
The spending bill, known as the omnibus, passed – but the push for ACA stabilization was not included. Beginning last summer, Senators Alexander and Murray were working on a bipartisan package that would aim to stabilize the ACA through cost-sharing reduction payments, outreach funding and reinsurance funding. In early December, Senator Collins pledged her vote on the Republican tax bill in exchange for ACA stabilization funding. […]
WCOE: No Action on ACA Stabilization Bill; ‘Black Cancer Matters’; Risks of At-Home Genetic Testing; Hospital Payment Reform; and More
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE), is our week-in-review blog series. “Health insurers say the GOP-led Congress’ inaction on ACA stabilization legislation is sure to hurt consumers” Bruce Japsen, Forbes.com — After months of negotiating around an ACA stabilization package that was set to be included in this week’s spending bill, no agreement was made and the stabilization provisions were left out of the spending package all together. […]
NCCS Joins Cancer Leadership Council to Oppose the Latest Version of Right to Try Act
NCCS joined the Cancer Leadership Council to express serious reservations about the latest version of the Trickett Wendler, Frank Mongiello, Jordan McLinn, and Matthew Bellina Right to Try Act, released on March 10, 2018. We oppose the latest version of right to try legislation because it makes a hollow promise to patients and removes the […]
WCOE: HHS Hints at Lax ACA Regulation; Burden of High Drug Costs; FDA’s Gottlieb Blasts ‘Rigged Payment Scheme’; Home BRCA Testing; More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. – “Trump Administration Blocks Idaho’s Plan to Circumvent Health Law” –
While rejecting Idaho’s plan in its current form, Ms. Verma encouraged the state to keep trying, and she suggested that, “with certain modifications,” its proposal might be accepted. […]
ACA Update March 9, 2018 | HHS Says ‘Not Quite’ to Idaho’s Illegal Health Plans, Supports Expansion of Skinny Short-Term Coverage
As we reported recently, Idaho regulators announced they would allow the sale of insurance plans that don’t adhere to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) requirements and patient protections. Blue Cross of Idaho was planning to sell insurance plans that are priced based on applicants’ health status. But in a decision announced in a letter to Idaho’s governor yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) said that the administration […]
Reps. DeSaulnier and Poe Introduce Bipartisan “Cancer Care Planning and Communications Act”
Advocated for by NCCS, the bill would increase comprehensive cancer care planning for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), both cancer survivors and co-chairs of the Congressional Cancer Survivors Caucus, introduced H.R. 5160, the Cancer Care Planning and Communications (CCPC) Act. A longtime legislative […]
NCCS Letter to DOL: Proposed Association Health Plans Rule “Will Increase Costs for Cancer Survivors and Others with Significant Health Needs”
The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) submitted comments on the proposed rule on Association Health Plans (AHPs) and expressed serious reservations that the proposed rule will weaken the individual and small group markets that provide health insurance coverage to many Americans with a history of cancer. For those who now receive their insurance through […]
NCCS Joins Letter Expressing “Serious Reservations” About “Right to Try” Legislation
NCCS joined with colleagues in the Cancer Leadership Council to express serious reservations about proposed “right to try” legislation that will remove the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from the approval process for patient access to an investigational therapy outside a clinical trial. NCCS does not believe that right to try legislation removing FDA from […]
What Caught Our Eye: NCI Chief Sharpless Interviewed; Expert Patients; “Why We Didn’t Seek Right to Try”; Progress in Survivorship Care; and More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. – Health Insurance – “Bait And Switch: The Sneaky Way Your Employer Just Passed Healthcare Costs Onto You” By Peter Ubel, Forbes.com — With increasing frequency, employers are directing their workers to the kind of high deductible, high out-of-pocket insurance plans that leave workers financially responsible […]
Remembering Catherine Logan Carrillo, a Pioneer of the Survivorship Movement
Catherine Logan Carrillo, co-founder of NCCS and its first Executive Director, died February 19 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Catherine founded Living Through Cancer, which eventually became People Living Through Cancer (PLTC), one of the first community-based peer support organizations for people dealing with cancer. After reading Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan’s seminal article, “Seasons of Survival: Reflections of a Physician with Cancer,” in […]
What Caught Our Eye: Multiple Proposals Continue to Weaken ACA Patient Protections; Breast Cancer Cost Survey; Editing Genes to Treat Cancer
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series — “Understanding Short-Term Limited Duration Health Insurance” — Karen Pollitz, Kaiser Family Foundation — The Health and Human Services Department published new rules Tuesday that expand access to short term health plans that exclude patients with preexisting conditions and don’t cover basic services like prescription drugs.
ACA Update February 16, 2018 | Idaho Insurer Rolls Out Health Plans That Violate ACA Regulations, Including Pre-Existing Condition Protections
Two weeks ago, NCCS reported in our ACA Update that Idaho regulators said they would allow the sale of insurance plans that don’t adhere to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) requirements. This week, the state took it a step further when Blue Cross of Idaho unveiled health plans that break the ACA’s federal health laws in several ways. Blue Cross of Idaho will attempt to sell insurance plans that are priced based on applicants’ health status. […]
What Caught Our Eye: Medicaid Coverage Limits; Cancer Care Cost Communication; Stanford Care Planning Study; Drug Pricing; and More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series. “After Approving Medicaid Work Requirements, Trump HHS Aims for Lifetime Coverage Limits” — After allowing states to impose work requirements for Medicaid enrollees, the trump administration is now pondering lifetime limits on adults’ access to coverage. Capping health care benefits — like federal welfare benefits — would be a first for Medicaid, the joint state-and-federal health plan […]
ACA Update February 2, 2018 | GOP Unlikely to Try ACA Repeal Again as Trump Admin Focuses Efforts on Weakening ACA Regulations
If you ask Dylan Scott, a health care reporter for Vox, about the risk of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being repealed, he’d say “The ACA is going to survive.” NCCS has heard this sentiment echoed by Members of Congress as well, with Senate Leader Mitch McConnell stating that he wants to move on to other priorities such as infrastructure. Even if Congressional Republicans agreed on a health care bill that could pass the chamber […]
What Caught Our Eye: Idaho Allows Insurers to Ignore ACA Rules; Op-ed: Right to Try a ‘Disaster in the Making’; Financial Toxicity; and More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series. “Obamacare will survive as Republicans give up on repeal” | By Dylan Scott, Vox.com — The Affordable Care Act is going to survive. The 2010 health care law has slowly but surely moved out of the line of fire. President Trump barely mentioned it in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. At their annual retreat this week in West Virginia, top Republicans signaled that the repeal dream […]
What Caught Our Eye: ACA Stabilization Waiting Game; Living with Lung Cancer; Cancer and Aging; Caregiving; The CancerSEEK Test; & More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. | “Congress’s next health care waiting game: market stabilization” — By Caitlin Owens, Axios.com — Now that Congress has passed a bill funding the Children’s Health Insurance Program — more than three months after funding expired — the clock is ticking as lawmakers work at putting together […]
ACA Update Jan 19, 2018 | Funding for CHIP and Community Health Centers Hangs in the Balance as Gov’t Shutdown Looms
The federal government will shut down tonight at midnight if Congress doesn’t pass a spending bill before then. The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was up for reauthorization four months ago, but because of budget disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on how to pay for the program, they have yet to come to an agreement. The House passed a continuing resolution, a short-term spending bill, that would fund […]
What Caught Our Eye: GOP Targets Employer Mandate, Hospitals Create Non-Profit Drug Company, Sex After Cancer, “Paperwork Paralysis”
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. “Obamacare didn’t get repealed — so why did the uninsured rate still go up?” — The uninsured rate went up in 2017, new Gallup data shows — the first time this has happened since the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion took effect. This works out to an estimated 3.2 million fewer Americans […]
ACA Update Jan 12, 2018 | Trump Admin Moves to Allow Medicaid Work Requirements; CHIP Extension Would Save Gov’t Billions
Earlier this week, NCCS’ CEO Shelley Fuld Nasso and Public Policy Manager Lindsay Houff hosted a Facebook Live health care policy update. They discussed legislative priorities for 2018 that impact cancer survivors and how you can help us advocate. On Thursday, the Trump administration released a 10-page memo outlining directions about how states can change Medicaid to include work requirements. Jane Perkins, legal director […]
What Caught Our Eye: “Resolutions of a Cancer Doctor;” BRCA Doesn’t Affect Survival; Medicaid Work Requirements; Cancer Death Rate Drops Again; and More
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. — “Trump’s secret plan to scrap Obamacare” — Early last year as an Obamacare repeal bill was flailing in the House, top Trump administration officials showed select House conservatives a secret road map of how they planned to gut the health law using executive authority. The March 23 document […]
ACA Update Jan 5, 2018 | Where the ACA Stands and What Changes to Health Care Lie Ahead in 2018
Not surprisingly, 2018 has started out with a bang and there are significant health care changes already in the works or coming down the pike. In this week’s Affordable Care Act Update, we lay out these changes and how they impact cancer survivors. At the end of December, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which included the repeal of the individual mandate. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that 13 million fewer […]
What Caught Our Eye: ‘Vital’ Survivorship Care; Trump Admin’s Skimpy Health Plans; Overscreening for Cancer; 2018 Cancer Trends; and More
What Caught Our Eye in cancer news this week. — “Trump’s Move to Make Skimpier Health Plans More Available Threatens to Undermine Obamacare” — The Trump administration moved Thursday to further loosen regulations on health insurance plans, taking a modest step toward the president’s oft-stated goal of rolling back requirements imposed by the Affordable Care Act that many Republicans blame for high premiums. […]
ACA Update | How the Newly-Signed Tax Bill Affects Patients, and a Thank You to Patient Advocates Across the U.S.
Early Wednesday morning, the House and Senate passed the Republican tax plan, and the bill was signed into law by the president on Friday. NCCS monitored the tax bill closely as it contains several provisions that will impact health care. Namely, it eliminates the individual mandate, which the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated will result in the loss of health coverage for 13 million Americans and an increase of 10% in premiums. […]
NCCS Concerned With Impact of Tax Bill on Cancer Patients
Silver Spring, MD – The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) issued the following statement regarding Congressional passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R. 1. The bill is now headed to the President’s desk to be signed into law. “By including repeal of the individual mandate, the tax bill will make access […]
ACA Update | December 15, 2017 – Last Day of ACA Open Enrollment, House and Senate Strike Deal on Tax Bill
Today is the last day of open enrollment for the ACA for 2018 plans. Most people can find plans for less than $75 a month. If you are auto enrolled into a plan because your insurer exited the market, you are allowed more time through a special enrollment period. If you have questions or need any help signing up, call 1-800-318-2596. This week, the House and Senate continued to conference – or negotiate the differences between […]
ACA Update | December 8, 2017 – As Tax Bill Negotiations Continue, Sen. Collins’ Legislative Demands Not Likely to Be Acted on This Year
It has been a little over a week since the Senate passed their tax reform bill. As the chambers continue to negotiate the differences between the House and Senate versions, a great deal of uncertainty remains as to the final product, especially as it pertains to health care provisions in the bill.
ACA Update | December 1, 2017 – Senate Plans to Vote Tonight on Tax Bill that Repeals Individual Mandate
The Senate on Thursday evening delayed a final vote on the tax bill due to “deficit concerns.” However a vote is expected to occur today, as Senate leaders announced they believe they have the votes necessary. Things fell apart on Thursday when the parliamentarian ruled that a trigger (an increase in taxes if economic growth goals were not met) did not adhere to Senate rules. Senator Corker and others had conditioned their support on […]
What Caught Our Eye: How the Senate Tax Bill Affects Health Care, Surgical Relief for Lymphedema, and An Investigation Into Exorbitant Costs of Care
What Caught Our Eye is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. “JCT says Republican tax plan will add $1 trillion to the deficit” — There is no consensus among economists about the amount of growth that would occur under the plan, but key models predict it would not cover its cost. Find out more about the implications of the tax bill. […]
What Caught Our Eye: ACA Individual Mandate Explainer, Medicaid Work Requirements, Metastatic Breast Cancer Research, and More
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE), November 17, 2017 — “Obamacare’s individual mandate, the new target in the GOP tax plan, explained” | The revised Senate tax bill would repeal the individual mandate. Repealing the mandate — which is the gear that makes the Affordable Care Act tick — would save more than $300 billion over 10 years, but only because millions fewer Americans would have health insurance, according to the Congressional […]
ACA Update | November 17, 2017 – Tax and Health Care Repeal Bill Passes House, Focus Shifts to Upcoming Senate Vote
The tax bill has officially turned into a health care bill. Last week, we learned the House version of the tax bill would eliminate the medical expense deduction. This deduction is a lifeline for cancer patients who claim it, as cancer care and the enormous out-of-pocket costs associated with it often result in financial toxicity and financial distress. As the LA Times reports, “What’s cruelest about the effort to repeal the medical expense deduction […]
NCCS Joins Letter to Congress Opposing Health Care Cuts in Tax Reform Legislation
NCCS and the 11 other member organizations of the Cancer Leadership Council sent a letter to Congress expressing “serious concerns about the potential negative impact of tax reform legislation currently under consideration on those living with cancer.” Three areas of concern discussed in the letter are repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate, […]
Seeing the Bigger Picture of Survival Through Patient Advocacy
As patient advocates (as in most other things in life), it seems the more we learn, the more see what we don’t know. Whether we’re involved in promoting a patient-centered approach to research, direct care, survivorship, policy change or education, there’s a daily twist and update for us to wrap our brains around. And no matter which arena we find ourselves in, we are always looking for the endpoint: How far have we come in cancer care, and how does […]
