Press Room

The health care reform legislation that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee began to review today would extend access to quality care to all Americans by guaranteeing issue of plans to all applicants, eliminating discrimination based on health status or history, capping out-of-pocket costs that patients pay and placing greater emphasis on disease prevention critical components that will benefit families affected by cancer.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- June 15, 2009 -- As Congress debates health care reform this year, it is important that legislation include measures to better coordinate care, improve access to palliative care and address quality of life needs for patients with chronic diseases such as cancer.

The nation is one step closer to ending Big Tobacco's unfettered access to children in America with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s passage of legislation to grant the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products.

One in four people currently receiving cancer-related care has delayed treatment in the past year, and nearly one in three people under age 65 who have been diagnosed with cancer has been uninsured at some point since their diagnosis, according to a national poll released today by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN).

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- May 5, 2009 -- The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) today launched an advertising campaign urging Congress to enact health care system reform this year.

Four in ten Americans say they would not be able to afford all the treatment and care needed if they were suddenly diagnosed with cancer, and one in five Americans says they are likely to lose their health insurance in the next 12 months, according to a national bipartisan poll released today.

The House and Senate passed Budget Resolutions last night that enable the critical effort to move forward to reform our health care system.  The result is good news for cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones who know too well the gaps that exist in the broken health care system.

Leaders from widely diverse national organizations today stressed their mutual commitment to reform of the nation’s health care system, calling it an “urgent, national necessity” that requires different stakeholders to cooperate in ways that they did not in previous reform efforts.

The House and Senate Budget Committees passed budget resolutions this week that enable critical health care reform to move forward in this country.  The result is good news for cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones who know too well the gaps that exist in the broken health care system.

Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) introduced legislation today that would renew the national commitment to defeat cancer, a disease that is expected to kill 560,000 Americans this year alone.