2025 North Carolina 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 North Carolinians touched by cancer and their leadership is vital to defeating this disease. In 2025 the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) will work with the North Carolina General Assembly on legislative and regulatory efforts that provide affordable, adequate access to health insurance, 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

• Access to Biomarker Testing: ACS CAN will advocate for improved coverage of comprehensive biomarker testing. Progress in improving cancer outcomes increasingly involves the use of precision medicine, which uses information about a person’s own genes or proteins to better diagnose and treat diseases like cancer. Biomarker testing is an important step to accessing precision medicine which includes targeted therapies that can lead to improved survivorship and better quality of life for cancer patients, but insurance coverage for biomarker testing is failing to keep pace with innovations and advancements in treatment.
• 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. We will advocate against any efforts to decrease Medicaid benefits or add work requirements to North Carolina’s current eligibility criteria.
• 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.

Cancer Prevention and Early Detection

• Breast and Cervical Cancer: ACS CAN will advocate to maintain funding of $1,607,452 for North Carolina’s Breast & Cervical Cancer Control Program. We support legislation to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for breast cancer diagnostic imaging and will continue to support legislation aimed at improving coverage of diagnostic, screening, and supplemental examinations for breast and cervical cancer.

Reducing the Toll of Tobacco

• 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 $20 million will allow the programs to reach more North Carolinians, provide more resources and information to individuals about breaking their addiction, and decrease youth nicotine addiction across the state.

For more information, contact: John Broome, North Carolina Government Relations Director ACS CAN 

[email protected] | 336-707-6614

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.