WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 26, 2015 – Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), issued the following statement on today’s House passage of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act:
“We commend the House of Representatives for passing a bipartisan agreement to remedy the longstanding physician payment discrepancy that threatened patient access to doctors in Medicare, to protect access to lifesaving care for low-income families and to emphasize quality over quantity in the way health care is delivered to patients system-wide.
“The bill would take important steps to reward health care providers for the quality of care they provide rather than the number of tests and procedures they perform, while ensuring the development of sound quality measures. ACS CAN supports the bill’s extension of funding for the National Quality Forum (NQF), the multi-stakeholder entity that reviews and endorses quality measures. It also makes permanent the Medicare qualifying individual (QI) program, which covers the cost of low-income Medicare beneficiaries’ Part B premiums, providing vital assistance to cancer patients in need.
“The bill could help to save lives from cancer by sparing federally qualified health centers from funding cuts that would have forced them to reduce lifesaving cancer screenings and other services for low-income and uninsured patients. Community health centers provide critical preventive services and care to low-income cancer patients and their families nationwide. In 2013 alone, they provided more than 424,000 mammograms and 1.7 million Pap tests, and they counseled more than 600,000 patients for tobacco cessation.
“The bill also would ensure that millions of low-income children have access to health care by extending funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program. We urge House and Senate leaders to come to agreement on the length of the program’s reauthorization. Since CHIP was created in 1997, the number of uninsured children has been cut in half. Yet uninsured children are three times more likely than children with insurance coverage to lack access to a needed prescription medicine, five times more likely to have an unmet need for medical care and 30 percent less likely to receive medical treatment when injured.
“We look forward to the Senate’s consideration of this critical bill for people with cancer and those at risk for the disease.”
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Alissa Crispino or Steven Weiss
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: (202) 661-5772 or (202) 661-5711
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]