Letter: Court ruling victory for cancer patients

First Posted: July 10, 2012 - 1:22 am
Last Updated: July 10, 2012 - 1:22 am

From: Misty Derringer

Columbus

Received: July 2

The U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold the federal health care law ensures that critical protections benefiting cancer patients and survivors will be implemented, such as those prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage to people with a pre-existing condition, requiring insurers to provide consumers with easy-to-understand summaries about their coverage and requiring health plans in the individual market to offer essential benefits needed to prevent and treat a serious condition such as cancer.

The ruling is a victory for people with cancer and their families, who for too long have been denied health coverage, charged far more than they can afford for lifesaving care and forced to spend their life savings on necessary treatment, simply because they have a pre-existing condition.

The ruling also preserves vital provisions in the health care law that are already in effect and that are improving the ability of people with cancer and their families to access needed care by ensuring that proven cancer screenings such as mammograms and colonoscopies are offered at no cost to patients, eliminating arbitrary dollar limits on coverage that can suddenly end care and prohibiting insurance companies from unfairly revoking coverage when a person gets sick.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, it is time for all of our elected officials in Indiana to work together in a bipartisan effort to implement the health care law as strongly as possible for cancer patients, survivors and their families.

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