WASHINGTON, D.C.—This Wednesday will mark 12 years since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law and cancer patients, survivors and millions of others gained expanded access to comprehensive health coverage. The law, which put in place critical protections for people with pre-existing conditions and provided other benefits that have helped prevent, detect, and treat cancer, has proven essential in lessening the overall cancer burden nationwide. It’s estimated nearly 34 million Americans have gained coverage since the law took effect.
“Prior to the law’s passage, pre-existing conditions, regardless of how minor or how serious, often meant being blocked from accessing comprehensive, high quality health insurance when people needed it most,” said Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “As we mark the 12-year anniversary, the meaningful gains in early detection and access to treatment have been made clear. What we need now is for lawmakers to continue improving the law, expanding access to affordable care, and ensuring all those who could benefit from the law do.”
Numerous studies have documented the law’s benefits to cancer patients, including young adult patients getting diagnosed earlier and accessing treatment sooner due to improved access to health coverage, and patients in Medicaid expansion states being less likely to be uninsured, more likely to get a proven cancer screening, having greater one-year overall survival rate, and being less likely to report being unable to afford their care. Studies have also shown that those states who have increased access to coverage through Medicaid expansion reduced disparities along ethnic, racial and urban and rural lines.
Expanding Medicaid in the 12 states that have yet to do so is one of a few urgent coverage and affordability priorities advocates are pressing Congress to address this session. Other items include making increased subsidies available for purchasing private coverage on the marketplace permanent—something that will be especially important as people potentially lose coverage gained under in the public health emergency—and capping Medicare enrollees’ out-of-pocket costs for prescription drug costs.
“We have certainly made significant progress in improving access to health care in the dozen years since the passage of the ACA, but we cannot rest on that progress alone and must continue to improve the system,” said Lacasse. “We need lawmakers on all levels to step up and do what’s necessary to ensure more cancer patients and survivors can get, keep and afford the care they need to successfully live their lives. We will continue working with Congress to strengthen and improve the law in the years to come.”