News
March 2011 Monthly Advocacy Update
CANCER RESEARCH AND PREVENTION PROGRAMS
Fighting Cuts to Cancer Programs
On Wednesday, ACS CAN and its partners in the One Voice Against Cancer (OVAC) coalition will be on Capitol Hill to oppose cuts the House of Representatives approved recently as part of a proposal to fund the federal government for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year (FY 2011). If the cuts were to stand, it would mark a major setback in the fight against cancer. In effect, research funding would revert to 2008 fiscal year levels with cuts to prevention and early detection being far greater, which would squander progress made in cancer research during the past few years.
Read the ACS CAN press release.
Specifically, the measure the House passed cuts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget by 21 percent, posing a serious threat to the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP). The bill also cuts the budget at the National Institutes of Health by 5.2 percent. The Patient Navigator program at the Health Resource Services Administration is completely eliminated.
With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) refusing to bring up the House proposal as is, Congress seems to be on track to approve a stop-gap funding bill that will keep the federal government open an additional two weeks when the current stop-gap measure expires on March 4. Attention is now shifting to House-Senate negotiations on a long-term spending bill, which is likely to have smaller cuts than what was included in the House-passed bill.
The President’s 2012 Budget
Even as work to complete the 2011 budget continues, ACS CAN and OVAC advocates will also be talking to lawmakers about the 2012 fiscal year budget. President Obama released his 2012 budget, which had some good news -- nearly $1 billion in new money for investments in biomedical and cancer research. Unfortunately, there was also bad news in the form of cuts to critical CDC programs that historically have expanded access to proven prevention cancer screening and tobacco cessation programs. Given that 60 percent of cancer deaths are preventable, such cuts should not stand. Read the ACS CAN press release.
ACS CAN Volunteer on Capitol Hill
On February 16, ACS CAN volunteer and cancer survivor George Blough of West Virginia spoke to the importance of cancer research at a Capitol Hill press conference. United for Medical Research, an umbrella group representing research institutions, patient and health advocates, and private industry, sponsored the event to launch “Profiles of Promise,” a compilation of interviews with bipartisan members of Congress who realize the benefits of strong federal investments in biomedical research funding. Read a feature about George in the Catonsville Times.
Amendments Defund Affordable Care Act
In addition to the severe cuts to cancer research and prevention program described above, the funding measure passed in the House contained nine amendments that greatly complicate Affordable Care Act implementation, including the development of regulations that will govern the health benefit exchanges and determining the essential benefits package. Amendments also passed that would deny funding to enforce the new medical loss ratio rules.
Senate Repeal Bill
In early February the Senate defeated an amendment offered by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to the Federal Aviation Administration re-authorization bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans had been petitioning Senator Reid to bring the House repeal bill, H.R. 2, to the Senate floor since the House passed it in January. Read the ACS CAN press release.
Prevention Grants
HHS announced the allotment of $750 million for fiscal year 2011 for prevention programs that are critical to the fight against cancer. This is the second year funds have been allocated from the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which was created by the Affordable Care Act. Read the ACS CAN statement.
Legal Challenges
The Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals has granted an expedited review in the Michigan-based challenge to Affordable Care Act. In that case, a federal judge upheld the constitutionality of the law, and plaintiffs are appealing. Oral arguments are likely to occur at the end of May or beginning of June in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oral arguments are set for May 10-13 in another major challenge to the law, which was brought in Virginia and will go in front of the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals. As the cases move through the judiciary, the Society and ACS CAN will continue to defend provisions of the law that are improving access to adequate and affordable health coverage for people with cancer and their families -– provisions that reflect priorities adopted by our organizations long before the current health care debate began. Read the joint friend-of-the-court brief the Society, ACS CAN, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Heart Association filed.
HealthCareandYou.org
ACS CAN has been working with other trusted groups in the health care sector on an effort to provide non-partisan information to patients, providers, and the public about the Affordable Care Act. Today, the groups formalized their alliance with the launch of HealthCareandYou.org, a website designed to educate the public about the Affordable Care Act in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner that is free of partisan overtones and political hyperbole.
COLORECTAL CANCER
Today ACS CAN joined with several public health associations and medical professional societies to release the eighth annual Colorectal Cancer Legislation Report Card. Only one state, Hawaii, passed coverage legislation in 2010. Combined with Vermont’s 2009 legislation, only two states have improved their grade in the past two years, the slowest improvement since the first report card was issued. Read the press release.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia now require insurance coverage of colonoscopies and other procedures that follow accepted medical guidelines, earning them the grade of “A.” Ten other states require varying degrees of coverage, with scores of B, C or D. Seventeen states scored an “F” for failing to mandate any coverage of the cost of colon cancer screening.
Guaranteeing insurance coverage in the states for colorectal cancer is still essential, even with passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As of September 23, 2010, all new health plans are required to cover colorectal screening tests under the ACA. The coverage rules, however, follow U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines and leave high-risk populations under 50 without coverage options. In addition, grandfathered plans (those existing health plans in which a person was enrolled on the date of enactment of ACA), are not required to cover the tests.
Starting in 2014, as part of the ACA, all plans participating in state exchange programs will be required to provide coverage based on a federally mandated “essential benefits” package, which are expected to also follow USPSTF guidelines –- again, potentially leaving high risk populations that fall outside the guidelines without coverage options. A critical goal for advocates is to ensure that those states with guaranteed coverage benefits that go above and beyond the USPSTF guidelines do not roll back those guarantees.
TOBACCO TAXES
The campaign to pass the California Cancer Research Act (CCRA) received a boost on Monday when Lance Armstrong announced his support for the measure. The CCRA would increase the tax on cigarettes by $1.00 per pack and raise approximately $855 million annually in the first year with slight, predictable decreases in ensuing years. The California Division is partnering with ACS CAN, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, Livestrong, and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids on the campaign.
If voters approve the CCRA on the next statewide primary ballot, 60 percent of the revenues (approximately $468 million in the first year), would fund research of cancer and tobacco related diseases. The remaining revenue would go toward facilities and capital equipment for research, tobacco prevention and cessation programs, and enforcement of anti-tobacco laws. Programs funded by existing tobacco tax revenue streams will be "backfilled" so that their revenue streams remain constant and no current programs are harmed.
TOBACCO LAWSUIT
After a delay caused by Big Tobacco’s attempts to continue their history of deceiving the American public, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler made public the Justice Department’s strong recommendations for corrective statements that tobacco companies must make to explain their decades of lies and dishonesty. The corrective statements stem from Judge Kessler’s 2006 opinion that found the major cigarette manufacturers guilty of violating civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The American Cancer Society and five other public health groups are interveners in the case, which the Justice Department filed in 1999 to hold Big Tobacco accountable for more than 50 years of fraudulent and deceptive marketing practices. Judge Kessler will ultimately decide what corrective statements the tobacco companies must make, based on submissions from the U.S. government, public health interveners and the industry. Read the ACS CAN statement.
Christopher W. Hansen
President
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)