Action Alert
Urge Your House Representative To Sign Important Viral Hepatitis/Essential Health Benefits Letter!
November 22, 2011
Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA), along with Representatives Mike Honda (D-CA), Judy Chu (D-CA), and Jim McDermott (D-WA) have written a “Dear Colleague” letter (see below) urging Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to include vital viral hepatitis and HIV/AIDS services in the final Essential Health Benefits package. As of November 21st, the following Representatives have signed this letter: Hank Johnson (D-GA), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Donna Christensen (D-VI), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Steve Cohen (D-TN), and John Conyers (D-MI).
Under the Affordable Care Act, Secretary Sebelius is responsible for developing the set of health care services that must be covered by health insurance plans that are offered in state-based Exchanges. This set of services will also be provided in the expanded Medicaid program that will serve low-income people.
This letter is a great opportunity for Congress to show leadership and make sure that people living with and at risk for viral hepatitis get comprehensive services, including screening, testing, mental health,
substance use, treatment, and chronic disease management.
Please take a few minutes to urge your House Representative to sign this letter!
What you can do:
Before November 30th, call your U.S. House Representative through the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121. When you are connected to your Representative’s office, ask to speak to the staffperson who handles health care issues. Whether you speak to this person live or leave a voicemail, tell him/her:
“My name is_______________ and I live in city/state. I strongly urge Representative_____________ to sign the “Dear Colleague” letter from Representatives Lee, Chu, Honda, and McDermott that supports viral hepatitis and HIV services as an Essential Health Benefit. More than 5 million people in the United States have hepatitis B or hepatitis C and the majority don’t know their status. We need a comprehensive set of services available in the Essential Health Benefits to mount a real fight against the viral hepatitis epidemic in the U.S. Please show leadership by signing this important letter. To sign, contact Jirair Ratevosian in Rep. Lee’s office.
Support HIV and Hepatitis Services as an Essential Health Benefit
Deadline: November 30, 2011
Dear Colleague:
We invite you to join us in sending the following letter to Secretary Sebelius to support the inclusion of critical HIV and hepatitis provisions in the Essential Health Benefits (EHB) package.
Under the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with developing a set of health care service categories that must be covered by certain health plans beginning in 2014.
More than five million people in the U.S. are infected with hepatitis B or hepatitis C (viral hepatitis), and as many as 75% of viral hepatitis carriers don’t know they are infected. Additionally, over one million people are infected with HIV, and at least 20% of them remain undiagnosed.
Individuals with HIV and/or viral hepatitis need a range of services to provide the complex care necessary to treat and manage these diseases. It is important to set a high national standard with the EHB package to reduce the health-care disparities that currently exist among the minority populations largely affected by HIV and viral hepatitis.
We urge you to join us in signing this letter. For more information, or to sign on to the letter, please contact Jirair Ratevosian at 202–225–2661 or at
jirair.ratevosian@mail.house.gov.
Sincerely,
Barbara Lee | Judy Chu | Mike Honda | Jim McDermott |
Member of Congress | Member of Congress | Member of Congress | Member of Congress |
***********************************************************
November X, 2011
The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary
United States Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Dear Secretary Sebelius:
As you work to define the Essential Health Benefits (EHB) package under the Affordable Care Act, we urge you to keep in mind the needs of people with HIV infection and viral hepatitis. The formulation of a benefits package is an important step toward reducing the impact of these infectious and often chronic diseases on minority communities, particularly communities of color.
More than five million people in the U.S. are infected with hepatitis B or hepatitis C (viral hepatitis), and as many as 75% of viral hepatitis carriers don’t know they are infected. Chronic viral hepatitis leads to cirrhosis, liver failure, or hepatocellular carcinoma in 15%-40% of patients, and roughly 25% of patients need liver transplantation per year with decompensated cirrhosis.
Additionally, over one million people are infected with HIV, and at least 20% of them remain undiagnosed. As many as 30 percent of people with HIV are also infected with hepatitis B or C, and many of them are more likely die to from hepatitis than HIV infection.
The National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the Action Plan for the Prevention, Care and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis recognize that individuals with HIV and/or viral hepatitis need a range of services to provide the complex care necessary to treat and manage these diseases. Moreover, it is important to set a high national standard to reduce the health-care disparities that currently exist among the minority populations largely affected by these infectious diseases.
Specifically, we urge you to consider the following as you work to formulate the EHB package:
- Bar arbitrary limits on medical services and laboratory monitoring that impede regular access to community-based HIV and viral hepatitis care. Laboratory tests used for diagnosis, monitoring treatment progress, and chronic disease management should be part of the essential benefits package.
- Prohibit monthly or annual limits on prescription drugs or place limits on unfair co–payment fees. Require special protections for certain classes of drugs, such as HIV and viral hepatitis medications. Reliable access to new and existing drugs available to treat chronic viral hepatitis infection and HIV/AIDS is critical to successful management of these diseases.
- Support early diagnosis for HIV infection by covering routine HIV testing and sexually transmitted disease screening among high-risk populations as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Additionally, support hepatitis B and hepatitis C screening with evidence–based screening services recommended by the CDC.
- Ensure that people with HIV and viral hepatitis have access to the comprehensive, coordinated care necessary for successful management of these serious conditions by designating them as eligible for chronic disease management programs.
- Ensure access to the range of services effective at treating mental health and substance use disorders that are prevalent among people with HIV and viral hepatitis, including opiate replacement therapy and syringe services programs.
- Set high national patient protection standards to bar discrimination against individuals with higher cost conditions, such as HIV and viral hepatitis, through unfair utilization management and cost-sharing practices.
We believe these provisions are consistent with both the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the Action Plan for the Prevention, Care and Treatment of Viral Hepatitis, and important to ensuring that people with HIV infection and viral hepatitis have access to reliable, high-quality and effective health services.
We look forward to working with you on this and other implementation pieces as we move forward.
Get Involved.
Who, me? What can I do?
Get involved - become an advocate!
Advocate - a person who pleads for or in behalf of
another
Advocates are vital component in the fight against
hepatitis C.
The hepatitis C epidemic is huge problem, and the efforts
and voices of many people are needed to make strides for those whose lives
are affected by HCV.
How to Get Involved
You can begin with the simple act of writing your state
and local elected representatives. Tell them you want hepatitis C moved to
the top of their health agenda. Click Here
to learn more.
Overcome Stigma & Misconception:
Give Hepatitis C a Face and a Voice
Each and every day, we hear stories from people living
with hepatitis C about the negative stigma associated with the disease.
Stigmatization and prejudice are often based on two factors: ignorance and
impersonalization or "facelessness." While people may have heard
of HCV, many have little knowledge about the disease, or worse yet; have
incorrect notions about the disease.
Ignorance often leads to fear, which is expressed as
prejudice.
Understandably, the stigmatization associated with
hepatitis C has caused many people living with the disease to remain
silent. However, we've all heard the old adage and have certainly
experienced its truth at some point: "The squeaky wheel gets the
grease."
Becoming involved in the hepatitis C community has many
potential benefits:
- You will be contributing to the process of raising public awareness
and knowledge about hepatitis C.
- Increased public awareness and knowledge will help
contain the spread of HCV, and will decrease the stigmatization
associated with ignorance and misconceptions about the disease.
- Involvement with the community is likely to expand your own support
system while at the same time providing help for others facing similar
challenges.
- Giving a "face" to hepatitis C will help others see that
those living with HCV are people just like their friends, neighbors,
and loved ones. This is often a powerful antidote to stigmatization
and prejudice.
There is strength in numbers!
While in an ideal world, facts and need should speak
for themselves, in the "real" world with many competing
interests vying for a limited number of funding dollars, it is
often those who are most vocal and who have the support of the
largest numbers of people that are heard. We need to join our voices
together so that decision makers can gain an understanding of the
problems at hand. We must also let them know the hepatitis C community
is strong, and we will not settle for insufficient resources to
meet the needs of those who require our help.
You are an important part of the hepatitis C community,
and we need your help!
