Vermont Action Center

           2010 Legislative Agenda & Talking Points

Vermont’s cancer burden

·         1,140 cancer deaths occurred in 2009

·         29,000 Vermont adults are living with a current or previous diagnosis of cancer

Problem: proposed funding cuts to Catamount Health will leave many Vermonters without adequate insurance which will impact cancer outcomes. To win the fight against cancer, all Vermonters should have access to affordable, quality health care. There are 47,000 uninsured Vermonters, and many more whose insurance fails to provide adequate or affordable coverage when diagnosed with cancer.  

• Increased cost-sharing places an undue burden on cancer patients: significantly increasing their out-of-pocket costs for treatment, office visits and for cancer related drugs.
• Proposed increased will drive Vermonters off of Catamount - being uninsured creates barriers to care and impacts cancer outcomes.
• Cutting health care programs does not make fiscal sense: because there is a state-federal partnership that can result in a 1 to 3 dollar cut in federal aid depending upon the matching fund rate.

• Eliminate Barriers that continue to prevent cancer patients from getting the care they need:  the pre-existing conditions clause excludes individuals with cancer from coverage for one year, and the one year waiting period under Catamount leaves people uninsured.

The Ask:  Do not increase the monthly premiums, deductibles, and co-pays – these cuts will adversely impact cancer patients by making them financially vulnerable to high health care bills.

Problem: proposed funding cut of $1.5 million from the Tobacco Control Program will decimate cessation services for Vermonters. Smoking is Vermont’s #1 cause of preventable death, killing more than 800 people each year; more people than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.  

• The program is working and having success, since its inception it has helped 20,000 smokers quit and countless others never pick-up the habit.
• Cutting the program will actually cost money.
• Cuts would leave smokers with little resources when demand for the program is at an all time high.

The Ask: protect cessation services for Vermonters by using funds from the tobacco trust fund to help protect and preserve the program now to ensure an effective program.

Problem: 420 Vermont women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year; more than 90 will die – many of them simply because they lacked access to early detection screening.   Ladies First program offers free life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings and post-diagnostic services to low-income and uninsured women. 

The Ask: Protect the Ladies First program; do not make further staffing reductions to this program as it offers a critical safety net for vulnerable women.