Access to Health Insurance

Share

As Congress considers changes to the Affordable Care Act, and as recently passed cuts to affordable health care take effect, we are committed to safeguarding the patient protections that are so important to cancer patients and survivors, and ensuring insurance coverage is truly affordable.  

We can never go back to the day when cancer patients couldn’t get health insurance coverage because they exceeded a lifetime limit or are denied coverage just because they survived cancer.  And, we must ensure they don’t experience any gap in their health insurance coverage and that their policies are truly affordable.

A study conducted by the American Cancer Society showed that people who are uninsured or underinsured are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at its more advanced stages when treatment is more expensive and patients are more likely to die from the disease.

Latest Updates

December 2, 2025
National

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) today released results from a survey exploring the impact of the enhanced premium tax credits on cancer patients and survivors who rely on the Marketplace for comprehensive health insurance coverage.

November 17, 2025
National

Today, ACS CAN released its first "Eye on Cancer Care" piece, which focuses on the dangers of the availability of “junk plans” that fail to provide the protections and health insurance coverage that cancer patients, survivors and those at risk of the disease need.

November 13, 2025
National

Lawmakers must turn their focus to long-term solutions. It is imperative that Congress moves swiftly to address two critical issues: ensuring health insurance costs do not spiral out of control for Marketplace plan coverage and passing a full-year budget that provides stability for American families.

October 31, 2025
National

Open Enrollment for most of the Health Insurance Marketplaces begins tomorrow, Saturday, November 1, and because Congress still has not extended the enhanced premium tax credits, tens of millions of people, including cancer patients and survivors, are facing significant premium increases.

Access to Health Insurance Resources

Cancer patients and survivors must balance reducing their health care costs with ensuring they have comprehensive coverage of services, treatments, and care providers.

Short-term limited duration (STLD) insurance plans do not provide the kind of comprehensive insurance coverage cancer patients need.  These plans were designed only as temporary coverage and are not subject to the same Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements as other health insurance products on the market.  As a result, an enrollee who was attracted to the plan’s lower premiums may find – if they are diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer – that the plan does not cover all of their necessary cancer treatments.  In these cases, the consumer can be left with catastrophic costs.

Many patients with complex diseases like cancer find it difficult to afford their treatments – even when they have health insurance.  Current law establishes a limit on what most private insurance plans can require enrollees to pay in out-of-pocket costs.  These limits protect patients from extremely high costs and are essential to any health care system that works for cancer patients and survivors.