ACS CAN New York State 2016 Budget and Legislative Priorities

107,840 New York State residents are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2015

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.

2016 Priorities:

 Cancer Screenings Save Lives

Don’t all New Yorkers deserve to have access to a screening that could save their lives? The New York State Cancer Services Program provides uninsured and underinsured New Yorkers with access to mammograms and cervical cancer and colorectal cancer screenings. 

 Recommendation:

• Maintain $25.3 million for the NYS Cancer Services Program
• Enact legislation to allow public employees a paid leave of absence to have a cancer screening, as recommended by their physician.

 Improve Access to Healthy Foods for Children and Families

Obesity, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition are major risk factors for cancer, second only to tobacco use. In New York, 8.5 million adults are considered overweight or obese, along with one-third of children across the state. Unfortunately, many families simply do not have access to a supermarket or healthy foods.  Low-income neighborhoods have 50% fewer supermarkets than the wealthiest neighborhoods.  Residents in neighborhoods with at least one supermarket eat up to 32% more fruit and vegetables.

 Recommendation:

• Provide $15 million in funding for the Healthy Food and Healthy Communities Fund, a program which leverages private dollars to build and renovate markets in underserved communities across the state.   
• Provide $3 million in funding to provide for a healthy corner store initiative to improve food offerings in smaller venues including corner stores and bodegas.

 Help New Yorkers Kick the Tobacco Addiction

Tobacco is a deadly addiction.  Every year in NYS, smoking kills 23,600 adults. Despite New York’s historic success in decreasing overall smoking rates, it is clear that some populations within the state are not being reached by the state’s tobacco control efforts.  According to an independent evaluation of the state’s tobacco control program, smoking rates among the poorest New Yorkers are much higher than among more affluent populations.

 Recommendations:

• Help protect NY kids and those that want to quit by increasing funding for the NYS Tobacco Control Program to $52 million.
• Identify and eliminate gaps in Medicaid smoking cessation coverage.
• Enact legislation to ensure all SUNY campuses are tobacco free.

 Electronic Smoking Devices

New York’s Clean Indoor Air Act has been protecting workers from secondhand smoke since 2003.  However, lawmakers weren’t aware of electronic cigarettes at that time.  Electronic cigarettes or “e-cigarettes” are typically battery-operated devices that allow the user to inhale an aerosol produced from cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor and other chemicals. FDA has not approved e-cigarettes for use in smoking cessation.

 Recommendation: 

• Eliminate the loophole that allows e-cigarettes to be used in workplaces and where smoking is currently prohibited. 

 Indoor Tanning

The use of indoor tanning devices have been directly linked to an increase in skin cancer.  It is estimated that over 400,000 skin cancer cases in the United States are attributed to indoor tanning each year.  Using a tanning device before the age of 35 increases the risk of melanoma by a staggering 59 percent.

 Recommendation:

• Protect teens and college age students by increasing the age to use indoor tanning devices to 21.

 Treatment and Care

Patients with a chronic disease such as cancer deserve access to the medications prescribed by their doctor.

 Recommendation:

• Allow for substitution of interchangeable biosimilar drugs, permitting less expensive versions of brand drugs to be substituted, while keeping patient safety as the top priority.
• Enact legislation to provide limitations on fail first (Step Therapy) policies.

For more information, contact: Julie Hart, New York Government Relations Director ACS CAN  

• [email protected]    ·   518.505.7833 ·

ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they