Remove Hurdles to Cancer Care

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COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the significant barriers to affordable health care that cancer patients have long faced. While relief packages and proposals to date have worked to address affordability of COVID-specific testing and treatment, policymakers must also tackle hurdles that cancer patients face like removing the red tape of prior authorization and step therapy, reducing out-of-pocket costs, and ensuring cost-sharing assistance directly benefits patients. There has been a great deal of research and investment in effective therapies that allow people fighting cancer to survive and live longer. Cancer patients need Congress to act quickly to remove hurdles to quality care.

56% of cancer patients and survivors are worried about being able to afford their treatment

Latest Updates

March 5, 2024
Arizona

PHOENIX, ARIZ.– March 5, 2024 – Governor Katie Hobbs announced a new plan to eliminate medical debt for up to 1 million people in Arizona, Monday morning. As part of “Affordable Arizona: Tackling Medical Debt for Working Families” program, the state will partner with RIP Medical Debt to buy back medical debt over the next two years.

February 23, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C.—February 23, 2024 —As organizations dedicated to ending cancer as we know it for everyone, the American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), are deeply concerned about a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Alabama on the status of

February 14, 2024
National

Protecting free preventive cancer screenings and reducing the burden of medical debt are the top issues of concern for cancer patients and survivors today, according to a new survey by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) that asked participants to select their leading policy priorities for the year.

February 2, 2024
National

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) was joined by 20 other organizations in proposing the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General adopt a new regulatory safe harbor from the Anti-kickback Statute that would allow clinical trial sponsors to financially support

Remove Hurdles to Cancer Care Resources

In 2003, Congress passed the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA), which created an outpatient prescription drug benefit in the Medicare program. Known as Part D, the prescription benefit is operated exclusively through private insurance plans that contract with Medicare. To ensure that beneficiaries have coverage for the drugs they need Part D plans are required to cover at least two drugs in each therapeutic class. A therapeutic class is a group of medications that are used to treat the same condition. 

Patient Assistance Programs

Medical debt impacts many people with cancer, their caregivers and their families. This factsheet details this impact and explores policy solutions to prevent medical debt and minimize its impact on health, quality of life and financial health.