Unfortunately, for most of you the answer to the question above is not well. According to a new edition of the ACS CAN report How Do You Measure Up? released today, many state legislatures are missing opportunities to enact laws and policies that could not only generate new revenue and long-term health savings, but also save lives. This year's report ranked where states stand on nine issues that play a critical role in reducing cancer incidence and death, including:
A color-coded system is used to identify how well a state is doing. Green represents the benchmark position, showing that a state has adopted evidence-based policies and best practices. Yellow indicates moderate movement toward the benchmark. Red shows where states are falling short. This year, no state received greens in seven or more of the 10 legislative priority areas and 38 states have reached benchmarks in only three or fewer. In most cases, small upfront investments by a state can save millions of dollars in health care costs in the long run. In fact, we know we could prevent roughly half of all cancer deaths in the United States if everyone in America were to stop using tobacco, get screened for cancer, eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly. Some of the ways states can help are:
Through our network of cancer survivors and caregivers, volunteers and staff, ACS CAN is working with lawmakers in every state to help pass laws like these that can save lives from cancer. Our hope is next year we'll be able to share that more states are measuring up in the fight against cancer.
Mariah Forster Olson, an ACS CAN Ambassador Constituent Team Lead (ACT Lead), traveled to Washington, D.C. this week to share her story as a childhood cancer survivor and to advocate on behalf of other patients and survivors during the 2019 Childhood Cancer Action Days.