Chronic disease patients face battles that healthy Americans do not. From access to adequate health care to discrimination and the cost of treatment—chronic disease patients know America has room for improvement. Policy issues present opportunities to make meaningful, lasting change for everyone.
2026 Policy Platform
Learn more about our 2026 policy platform:
Addressing Prior Authorization
Prior authorization is used by health insurers to determine whether a medication, treatment or service prescribed by a doctor will be covered. While some initial review of expensive treatments is to be expected, overuse leads to unnecessary delays and continued patient suffering.
Addressing Step Therapy and Non-Medical Switching
Insurance companies often force patients to use cheaper treatments that have not been prescribed by a doctor in order to cut costs, with dangerous implications.
Bridging the Medicare Gap
Medicare supplemental insurance policies (Medigap plans) cover some of the medication and treatment costs that traditional Medicare does not pay.
Chronic Kidney and Rare Disease Task Forces
The Chronic Disease Coalition’s top priority is to ensure patients’ voices are heard whenever patient issues are being discussed. Because legislators and state agencies aren’t experts on every single issue, they often rely on task forces of experts or affected citizens.
Copay Accumulator Programs
Insurance companies will take all the revenue from copay assistance, but then require patients to personally pay their deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, eliminating the role of copay assistance.
Expanding Access to Telehealth
Access to telemedicine is a valuable tool for supporting patients with chronic disease, who may be immunocompromised or have difficulty leaving their homes.
Living Organ Donor Protections
Every year, 6,000 Americans become living donors of kidneys, livers, and other organs to save the lives of family members, friends, colleagues, and even complete strangers. Yet another name is added to the transplant waitlist every 10 minutes. Discriminatory insurance policy is dissuading people from participating in this crucial assistance.
Prescription Drug Affordability Boards
Prescription Drug Affordability Boards (PDABs) are state-created bodies that review the cost of certain medications with the goal of finding ways to make them more affordable. However, it’s essential that PDABs make sure patients don’t lose access to essential treatments or future cures.
Putting Patients First in Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) Reform
For the hundreds of millions of Americans who live with chronic conditions, affording their medication on an ongoing basis, despite having insurance, is a major barrier to living a healthy and full life.
The 340B Program
The 340B program is supposed to make medications more affordable for patients, but it's not always working that way.