Center to Advance Palliative Care Statement on the Supreme Court Decision to Uphold the Affordable Care Act
The Center to Advance Palliative Care is pleased that the Affordable Care Act, with its aims to expand access to quality healthcare for all Americans, will continue to positively affect healthcare delivery in the United States. With increased access to care, and the development of enhanced quality measures, more seriously ill patients and families will receive the high quality, effective care they need to reduce suffering and live longer, healthier lives. This benefit is of the utmost importance to CAPC and the field of palliative care, as the patients we treat are the sickest, most vulnerable people in our nation’s healthcare system.
The ACA has already provided significant benefits to seriously ill patients of all ages. Especially important are:
- Insurers will not be able to deny coverage due to a pre-existing condition
- Insurers will not be able to drop a person’s coverage because they become sick
- There will be no lifetime limits on coverage, so coverage cannot be cut off once the bill hits a certain threshold
- Children up to 26 will be covered by their parents’ insurance
- And for everyone trying to avoid illness—free prevention care
"The delivery of high quality care is critically important to the patients we serve—Americans of all ages with serious and complex illness," said CAPC director, Dr. Diane E. Meier. "As new quality measures are adopted, new medical research funding is allocated, and delivery systems are calibrated, we welcome the opportunity to ensure that essential palliative care is brought to all our nation’s patients."
About the Center to Advance Palliative Care
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) provides the tools, training, and technical assistance necessary to start and sustain successful palliative care teams nationwide. CAPC is a national, non-profit organization located at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City. CAPC.org
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Contact: Lisa Morgan, LDM Strategies, 212-924-6182 or [email protected].