Living Beyond Breast Cancer Creates Healthcare Newsroom To Provide Policy Updates

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To help people affected by breast cancer understand and prepare for changes to healthcare insurance policies that might affect them, Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) has created a Healthcare Newsroom on LBBC.ORG.

Throughout 2017, LBBC staff members and healthcare experts will post easy-to-understand, timely reports on major changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other laws, regulations and guidance that affect a patient's access to care. LBBC will also post updates on Facebook and Twitter.

"Immediately after the presidential election, we began to get frantic calls and messages through social media from our constituents who rely on the ACA for their access to health care," said LBBC's CEO Jean A. Sachs, MSS, MLSP. "The Healthcare Newsroom is part of LBBC's commitment to providing clear and trusted information at a time of great uncertainty. Many of our constituents are concerned about being cut off from insurance due to pre-existing conditions or facing high out-of-pocket costs, particularly those living with metastatic breast cancer, who will be in treatment for the rest of their lives."

Kelly Nemecek, 50, of Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the millions of people for whom coverage of pre-existing conditions is essential. Kelly was diagnosed with stage IIIA breast cancer in April 2015. She has gotten health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace since 2012, when it first became available.

"My chemotherapy treatment cost $200,000," Kelly says. "Future scans and more treatments — if, God forbid, I need them — could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nobody can afford to pay that. As long as new plans continue to cover pre-existing conditions, as the president assures us, while bringing costs down, I will be pleased." 

The Newsroom will be guided by an advisory board of policy specialists and updated with news as well as stories of people navigating changes to their health insurance coverage. Also posted on the site are relevant resources including LBBC's Guide to Understanding Financial Concerns, which offers practical advice on managing the visible and hidden costs of breast cancer treatment.

LBBC's advisory board is expected to expand throughout the year. Its core members include:

• Gwen Darien, a long-time health advocate and thought leader in the cancer and biomedical research communities. Darien is executive vice president for patient advocacy at the Patient Advocate Foundation and the National Patient Advocate Foundation, where she leads activities and programs to improve health care access and affordability for patients.
• Joanna L. Fawzy Morales, Esq, a cancer rights attorney, author, speaker and CEO of Triage Cancer, a national nonprofit that connects people to cancer survivorship resources and teaches how to minimize out-of-pocket costs.
• Shelley Fuld Nasso, MPP, CEO of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), where she leads the organization's public policy efforts to advocate for federal policy to ensure quality care for all people touched by cancer.

About Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC)
LBBC connects half a million people each year to trusted breast cancer information and a community of support. National conferences, Breast Cancer 360s, the Guides to Understanding Breast Cancer, and a toll-free Breast Cancer Helpline are provided at little or no cost.  For information, visit LBBC.ORG or call (855) 807-6386.

SOURCE Living Beyond Breast Cancer

Related Links

http://www.lbbc.org