Connecticut Action Center

Achieving the American Cancer Society’s mission to save lives requires improving access to quality, affordable health care.  In 2006, the Society’s Board of Directors established two new nationwide objectives:  to ensure that all Americans have health care coverage by 2015 and to reduce the high out-of-pocket costs that prevent people from getting lifesaving care.  Health care reform legislation, while not a cure-all, is a critical component of improving access to care.  That’s why the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) is working with cancer patients, survivors, and their families to enact comprehensive health reform legislation that will work for them.

Inadequate insurance or lack of insurance is causing unnecessary deaths and suffering from cancer.

• Many cancer patients and survivors are either denied of charged excessive amounts for their insurance coverage because of their pre-existing condition.
• More than 25 mission people in American have insurance that is inadequate, especially if they have cancer, and another 46 million have no insurance at all.
• Sixty percent of cancer deaths are preventable, yet many underinsured and uninsured people delay or skip screenings because they can’t afford them.
• Society research shows that people with no insurance are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer and to die from the disease than those with insurance.

ACS CAN is fighting for science-based reform that works for people with cancer.

• The bills pending in Congress currently include changes that would significantly help people fight cancer by:

o      Guaranteeing coverage for all Americans regardless of health status or pre-existing conditions;

o      Prohibiting insurance companies from charging people more for insurance because of their health status;

o      Eliminating annual and lifetime dollar limits on benefits and placing limits on patient out-of-pocket costs;

o      Increasing the emphasis on prevention, with little or no patient costs for cancer screenings; and

o      Fostering patient-centered care that will improve quality of life for people with cancer.

• ACS CAN is working to ensure that these provisions are included in a final bill, and that coverage is both affordable and adequate for all Americans.

ACS CAN is non-partisan and is focused on what matters most in the fight against cancer.

• That means we do not have a position on every issue, including some that have been the most controversial, such as the “public option.”
• ACS CAN has not yet endorsed any congressional health care reform proposal, but will continue to push for the legislative process to move forward.
• This is the best opportunity in years for positive, meaningful reform, and the process must be seen through to the end.
• ACS CAN will evaluate legislation based on our policy principles – not politics – and in careful consultation with Society leadership.
• A decision to endorse or oppose a bill will be based on whether ie meaningfully improves the lives of cancer patients, survivors, and their families.