WASHINGTON, D.C. -- April 14, 2015 -- Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), issued the following statement on tonight's Senate passage of H.R. 2, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act:
The Senate displayed strong bipartisan support for remedying the longstanding physician payment discrepancy that threatened patient access to doctors in Medicare, protecting access to lifesaving care for low-income families and emphasizing quality over quantity in the way health care is delivered to patients.
The bill that passed the Senate takes key steps to reward health care providers for the quality of care they provide rather than the number of tests and procedures they perform. 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. The bill 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 spares 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 ensures that millions of low-income children will continue to receive lifesaving care by extending funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program. Since CHIP was created in 1997, it has halved the number of uninsured children, who 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 commend congressional leaders in the House and Senate for forging a bipartisan agreement on a 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]