Ask your Senators to vote NO on the revised Senate health reform bill July 17, 2017 by Kylie Karley ADVOCACY ALERT: ACTION REQUIRED Ask your Senators to vote NO on the revised Senate health reform bill The Senate recently released a revised version of its healthcare reform bill entitled The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). This bill, like the House version, proposes state waivers, continuous coverage penalties, and deep cuts to Medicaid that would harm patients with costly and chronic health conditions. David O. Barbe, M.D., President of the American Medical Association, stated that “the revised bill does not address the key concerns of physicians and patients regarding proposed Medicaid cuts and inadequate subsidies that will result in millions of Americans losing health insurance coverage.” This version of the BCRA adds an amendment from Senator Ted Cruz that would allow insurers to offer plans that do not meet Essential Health Benefits requirements, as long as these insurers offer at least one plan that does. Chris Hansen, President of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, stated that the amendment and the bill as it stands would “leave patients and those with pre-existing conditions paying more for less coverage and would substantially erode the progress our nation has been trying to make in providing affordable, adequate, and meaningful coverage to all Americans.” This bill harms patients with chronic and complex illnesses in the following ways: Allows insurers to offer less comprehensive policies through a provision that allows states to waive the federal mandate on Essential Health Benefits Includes an amendment that would allow insurers to offer low quality health insurance benefits in place of comprehensive benefits under current law Allows states that seek and receive waivers to opt out of limits on patient out-of-pocket costs and annual/lifetime caps Contains a continuous coverage requirement, which would charge a penalty to individuals with a gap in their insurance coverage Ends Medicaid expansion, leaving millions of the most vulnerable individuals without critical care. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is anticipated to release its analysis of the bill by Monday, and a vote on the bill could take place anytime before the Congressional recess in August. Take Action: Secure the contact information for your Senators by visiting www.Senate.gov and using the “Find Your Senator” query tool in the upper right corner. Call the office and ask for the Health Legislative Assistant. You can either leave a voicemail or request their e-mail address and send them a message using the template below. Politely and occasionally follow up on your request. You should have an expectation that the office will respond to your specific concerns. If you would like to do more, you can request a brief meeting with the staff at your Senators’ local offices (the location office information is on their websites). Template For Emailing Your Senators Dear _______, My name is _________ and I am a constituent from _________. I am also an advocate for (your health condition). I write to urge you to vote NO on the Senate’s healthcare bill. The Senate healthcare bill would: Jeopardize patient access to quality, affordable & available coverage Cut-off health coverage for millions of Americans Bring back annual and lifetime caps on coverage Price people with pre-existing conditions out of the insurance market I write to urge you to maintain stability for chronic disease patients as you and your colleagues consider healthcare reform. It is my hope that you and your colleagues in the Senate will preserve key patient protections and respect the circumstances of those combatting chronic and costly illnesses. Specifically, please ensure any Senate proposal: maintains essential health benefits prohibits pre-existing condition discrimination prohibits lifetime and annual caps on benefits limits out-of-pocket costs for patients in a meaningful way allows young adults to stay on family coverage until they are 26 [Add a paragraph of brief information about your condition. Tell your story.] Patients need a transparent, bipartisan effort to stabilize the insurance market, bring down premiums, and retain the patient protections that are so critical to patients, consumers and their families. We urge the Senate to go back to the drawing board, and work together to find ways to protect patients with serious illness. Thank you for your time and your consideration of this letter. Please tell me how you have responded to my request. Sincerely, [Name] [Address]
Advocacy Alert! Action Required: Tell Congress to Preserve Protections for Chronic Disease Patients April 10, 2017 by Kylie Karley Advocacy Alert! Action Required: Tell Congress to Preserve Protections for Chronic Disease Patients Contact your House Member to ask them to support critical patient protections during the current healthcare reform effort Tell Congress to Preserve Protections for Chronic Disease Patients The leadership of the House of Representatives is continuing to work with conservative and moderate Republicans in an effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Their proposal, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), was pulled from consideration a few weeks ago when it could not muster the votes to pass. However, House leaders continue to try and find common ground in order to modify the House leadership bill to make it passable. The emerging House leadership plan includes a number of provisions that would be devastating for patients with chronic, complex, and costly medical conditions. The bill would remove protections for individuals with pre-existing health conditions. It would also eliminate the ACA’s Essential Health Benefits—federal quality standards for health insurance policies. In place of these protections, the bill would expand health savings accounts and tax credits, establish state risk sharing subsidies, and leave it to states to determine which essential health benefits they will offer—likely leading to lower quality benefits for patients with costly diseases. For patients with costly health conditions, they could likely never put enough money in a health savings account, nor would they be able to take advantage of a tax break associated with not utilizing healthcare services. Further, segregating costly patients into high risk pools has not worked in the past and would jeopardize access for the most vulnerable. Elimination of the federal mandate that insurers offer a minimum level of benefits and allow states the flexibility to decide these benefits would likely mean that many states would have the incentive to not recommend comprehensive benefits to those with pre-existing health conditions. Insurers could also dramatically hike premiums for those with expensive chronic health care needs. The House of Representatives could vote on this bill when it returns on April 24th from the Easter recess. Grassroots outreach and educating Members of Congress about the needs of chronic disease patients continues to influence the overall debate. At this time, please reach out to your House member and ask them to protect patients and oppose discriminatory and dangerous provisions. Take Action Secure the contact information for your House representative by visiting House.gov and using the “Find Your Senator/Representative” query tool in the upper right corner. Call the office and ask for the Health Legislative Assistant. You can either leave a voicemail or request their e-mail address and send them a message using the template below. Politely and occasionally follow up on your request. You should have an expectation that the office will respond to your specific concerns. If you would like to do more, you can request a brief meeting with the staff at your members’ local offices (the location information is on their websites). +++++++++++++++++ Dear _______, My name is _________ and I am a constituent from _________. I am also an advocate for the community of individuals impacted by _________ (condition). I write to urge you to maintain stability for chronic disease patients as you and your colleagues consider healthcare reform and changes to the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The AHCA in its current form would be devastating for my community. Segregating high cost patients into high risk programs has not worked in the past, even with a federal subsidy. Additionally, eliminating the federal mandate that insurers offer a minimum level of benefits would likely mean that many states could offer substandard benefits for those with pre-existing health conditions or hike premiums for the most vulnerable Americans in desperate need of essential healthcare. Please make sure any proposal maintains crucial patient protections that promote access and prevent financial hardships. Specifically, please ensure any future proposal: maintains essential health benefits prohibits pre-existing condition discrimination prohibits lifetime and annual caps on benefits allows young adults to stay on family coverage until they are 26 limits out-of-pocket costs for patients in a meaningful way [Add a paragraph of brief information about the medical condition you are concerned about. Tell your story.] Thank you for your time and your consideration of this letter. Please tell me how you have responded to my request. Sincerely, [Name] [Address]