Legislative Spotlight
Welcome to our new Legislative Spotlight feature! Here, we will highlight a healthcare bill that needs our help to either pass or to be defeated. The featured bills will mainly come to us from the state legislatures, but sometimes we will include a federal bill. All of these bills will be of high impact to the chronic and autoimmune communities, and we will be asking you to take action with us in opposition or support.
Bill of the month: COVID-19 Response
This month we are doing something a little different with the spotlight. Congress is moving quickly and has passed three bills to address the impact of coronavirus/COVID-19 on the social, economic, and healthcare networks in this country. Right now, they basically amount to relief bills – making sure individuals and businesses get the money they need to survive the economic hit, and supporting and expanding healthcare system needs to help people survive the disease. But there is going to have to be more. Please see below for policy priorities that haven’t yet been addressed but need to be.
Expedite Medicaid enrollment and a special enrollment period for Affordable Care Act exchange coverage for people who lose their jobs, and therefore their healthcare coverage, as well as those who may have not enrolled not knowing that a global pandemic was on the horizon.
Expand telemedicine services for those without COVID-19 symptoms, but who still need their regular visits with their care network to facilitate the continued stability of chronic and autoimmune conditions and/or to address unstable chronic and autoimmune conditions and flareups without breaking social distancing directives.
Require all health insurers to allow patients to refill critical prescriptions and supplies for extended periods of time to ensure that patients have what they need to survive until the crisis passes and our regular routines are safe to follow again.
Increase funds to nonprofits to pay for the increased costs and demand for services arising because our economy and safety net was not built for a pandemic of this degree.
Take ACTION
We urge you to contact your federal delegation and let them know that you want these priorities to be addressed.
