AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin and Harvard Law School have partnered for a campaign aimed at ensuring patients’ health care rights across Wisconsin.
ARCW and Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School, which have worked together since 2015, will create a campaign to ensure that patients with HIV and other chronic diseases receive health care as the Affordable Care Act mandates, said Bill Keeton, ARCW vice president of government and public relations.
According to the ACA, patients suffering from chronic diseases should be able to access necessary medicines and receive fair health insurance without discrimination, Keeton said. He said many patients in Wisconsin are not able to receive equal care and some are not even insured because of unfeasible health plans.
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Through the campaign, ARCW and Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation look to ensure available health insurance plans meet the ACA’s standards, Keeton said.
“We’re making sure that folks buying [insurance] plans and participating insurers are meeting the requirements of the Affordable Care Act,” Keeton said.
Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation has also partnered with other states including Tennessee, Texas and Pennsylvania, Keeton said.
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Currently, most patients in Wisconsin have health insurance but those who do not are particularly vulnerable to mismanaging their health, Keeton said. He said it is important patients with chronic diseases have insurance in order to develop a good relationship with their primary care providers. Not having such a relationship can leave diseases untreated and undiagnosed, which will drive up costs and harm patients’ health in the long run.
Keeton said health insurance plans have to meet required standards because they ensure patients and primary care providers have access to required medications.
In some cases, the insurance plan covers the provider but does not provide required medications. In other cases, the plan does not cover the provider but provides required medications, Keeton said. He said both such cases are problematic for patients as one prevents access to medications and the latter harms the relationship the patient has with the primary care provider.
“The patient would then have to choose between their doctor and their medications,” Keeton said. “This is a very unfair position to put someone in.”
Keeton said the campaign will protect patients from such discrimination in choosing health insurance plans and prevent plan costs from running too high. This will be done through complaints made to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights, he said.
The campaign will also include education and media efforts that will target federal and state government officials and insurers, Keeton said.
HIV Medicine Association executive director Andrea Weddle said in a statement that the campaign’s actions will support those with HIV and stop discrimination in the insurance marketplace.
“Health and social services providers, advocates and individuals living with HIV should be proactive about raising their voices, and using tools like complaint letters to challenge health plan policies that discriminate against individuals living with HIV,” Weddle said.
