This afternoon, First Lady Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke at George Washington University Hospital to announce the release of new guidelines that will provide free preventive health care services under the Affordable Care Act.
The new guidelines will mean that insurance plan can no longer charge copayments or other fees for a number of preventive services including colorectal cancer screenings. The regulation does not take effect until Sept. 23, and it only applies to plans that are new after that, meaning that people who stay on their existing plan won’t benefit from the change.
Colorectal Cancer Coalition President Carlea Bauman was invited to the event, which was attended by about 50 other health care leaders, doctors, and nurses.
During her remarks, Secretary Sebelius said that “[t]oo many Americans don’t get the preventive care they need to stay healthy.” A conclusion the colorectal cancer community is well aware of with colorectal cancer continuing to be the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in men and women and the second most common cause of cancer death.
Interested in learning more about today’s guidelines and other provisions in the Affordable Care Act that will affect the colorectal cancer community? Take a look at our webinar that provides an overview of the Affordable Care Act through a cancer lens.
Leave a Reply
Your comments are welcome. However, specific medical advice will not be provided. Generic QUESTIONS can be directed to our Answer Line team at http://fightcolorectalcancer.org/awareness/answer-line or by calling us at 1-877-427-2111 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern time, Monday – Friday. We urge you to consult with a qualified physician for diagnosis and for answers to your personal questions. Fight Colorectal Cancer is not responsible for the medical accuracy of any comments left by persons other than Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members. Fight Colorectal Cancer staff members monitor comments and may respond publicly where appropriate.
Please note that we automatically publish the name that you enter next to your post. Also note that our pages are automatically indexed by Google and other search engines, and your name may therefore appear in search results on those sites. So if you wish to remain anonymous please use a different name or enter 'Anon' as the name.
We regret that we are unable to privately answer questions left as comments. So please do not include your phone number, email or mailing address in the body of your comment.