2024 Virginia Legislative Priorities

Victory in the fight against cancer requires bold new public policies that promote cancer prevention, early detection of cancer, and expand access to quality, affordable health care. Lawmakers make many decisions that impact the lives of Virginia residents impacted by cancer and their leadership is vital to defeating this disease. In 2024 the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) will work with the Governor and the General Assembly on legislative and regulatory efforts that provide affordable, adequate access to health insurance including Medicaid, ensure adequate funding for lifesaving cancer screening and prevention programs, and enact prevention policies to protect kids from tobacco products and help support those who are trying to quit. We will be making the following fact-based policies a priority and ask for your support:

Ensuring Access to Quality Care

• Medicaid: ACS CAN will advocate for low-income individuals for continued access to comprehensive health insurance coverage and non-emergent medical transportation services through state Medicaid programs. We will support policies that preserve funding and access to Medicaid for low-income parents and adults including changes to Medicaid that reduce coverage, benefits, eligibility, or quality of care and improvement of Medicaid systems. ACS CAN will advocate to protect Medicaid expansion in Virginia.
• Affordable, Adequate Health Insurance: ACS CAN will advocate for policies that ensure access to quality, affordable and comprehensive health insurance including Medicaid and will support efforts to curb the availability of inadequate health plans.
• Network Adequacy: ACS CAN will support legislation regarding health insurance network adequacy to help ensure that cancer patients and cancer survivors have access to appropriate medical specialists they may need.

• Reduces Patient Medical Debt: ACS CAN recognizes the impact of medical debt on people with cancer, caregivers, and their families. In addition to supporting policies that ensure affordable access to comprehensive healthcare coverage, ACS CAN will advocate for policies that prevent the occurrence of medical debt and reduce the impact of incurred medical debt on individuals and families.
• Palliative Care: ACS CAN will work to improve cancer patients’ quality of life by creating a Palliative Care and Quality of Life Advisory Council to identify barriers to the availability of coordinated, supportive care during treatment from the beginning of diagnosis for serious diseases such as cancer.

Cancer Prevention and Early Detection

• Breast and Cervical Cancer: ACS CAN will advocate for increased funding for Every Women’s Lives program, the state breast and cervical cancer screening program for low-income uninsured and underinsured women administered by the Virginia Department of Health.
• Colorectal Cancer: ACS CAN will work to establish funding for colorectal cancer screening, treatment, and patient navigation programs. Additionally, ACS CAN will work to ensure health plans cover colorectal cancer screening beginning at age 45 in accordance with updated American Cancer Society and United States Preventive Services Task Force guidelines and ensure patients are not charged for colonoscopies that follow a positive stool-based test.
• Remove copays for cancer screenings: ACS CAN will advocate for legislation to eliminate cost sharing for follow-up cancer screening tests that are needed after an abnormal result and supplemental screening needed for some individuals who are above average risk.

Reducing the Toll of Tobacco

• Tobacco Taxes: As the Commonwealth works to identify funding strategies to reduce the projected budget deficit, ACS CAN will advocate to increase the cigarette tax by $1.00 per pack with a parallel tax on all other tobacco products including e-cigarettes. Increasing the price of cigarettes and all other tobacco products through regular and significant tobacco tax increases helps prevent kids from starting to use tobacco and helps support people who are trying to quit.  $2 million of the revenue from the tobacco tax increase should be used to fund and sustain fact-based, statewide tobacco prevention and cessation programs.
• Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Funding: ACS CAN will work to increase funding for fact-based, statewide tobacco prevention and cessation programs to $20 million.  Increasing funding to $6 million will allow the program to increase funding for the Quit Lines
• Access to Tobacco Cessation: ACS CAN will advocate for all insurance plans, including the state Medicaid program, to provide a comprehensive cessation benefit that covers individual, group, and telephone counseling and all FDA-approved tobacco cessation medications without cost-sharing or other barriers to accessing care.

Cancer Research Funding

• Research Appropriations: ACS CAN will work to protect/increase appropriations to support scientific research on cutting-edge treatments.
• Comprehensive Cancer Control Program Funding: ACS CAN will work to protect/increase appropriations for state comprehensive cancer control programs.
• State Cancer registries:  ACS Can will work to protect or increase appropriations to support state cancer registries which provide the data-driven foundation for the state cancer control efforts.

Local Control

• ACS CAN supports the authority of local governments to pass local policies that go beyond state laws to help families be healthy, safe and secure. Policymaking at the local level allows innovation and creative problem solving that builds on local strengths and addresses local needs. ACS CAN works at the local, state and federal levels to ensure everyone has a fair and just opportunity to prevent, fight and survive cancer. ACS CAN will oppose legislation that restricts the freedom of local leaders to best serve your shared constituents. 

For more information, contact: Brian Donohue, Virginia Government Relations Director ACS CAN 

[email protected] Phone (202) 617-4502  

ACS CAN is making cancer a top priority for public officials and candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. ACS CAN empowers advocates across the country to make their voices heard and influence evidence-based public policy change as well as legislative and regulatory solutions that will reduce the cancer burden. As the American Cancer Society’s nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate, ACS CAN is critical to the fight for a world without cancer. For more information, please visit www.fightcancer.org.