Statement of ACSCAN on Governor Cuomo's Proposed 2014-2015 Budget

Statement of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
on Governor Cuomo’s Proposed 2014-2015 Budget

New York Drops from 5th to 21st in Tobacco Control Efforts; Citizens of New York Lead the Way in Cancer Fight While State Funds Decline

January 22, 2014

This month, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACSCAN) is marking the 50th anniversary of the Surgeon General Luther Terry’s landmark report in 1964 that linked cigarette smoking to cancer. Our country’s political and public health leadership can derive great satisfaction from the achievements which have followed from a three-part strategy that has included:

a) raising cigarette taxes
b) banning smoking in restaurants, bars and many other public places and
c) funding for tobacco cessation efforts

Smoking rates declined from 42% in 1964 to 18% nationally and 16% in New York State. We are not content with this success though and we join with other public health organizations in working toward a goal of reducing nationwide smoking rates to 12% by 2020 and 10% in the next ten years. This is especially important because, despite our successes, many sub-groups of the state’s population including rural residents, the low-income, lower educated, ethnic groups and those with behavioral and substance abuse problems continue to smoke at much higher rates exceeding 25% or even 30%.

The successes we have had are a clear indication of what strong public leadership can accomplish. Unfortunately, Governor Cuomo’s budget fails to provide the commitment, leadership and partnership necessary to help us attain our public health goals regarding smoking cessation and cancer screenings and prevention. The Governor proposes no further cut in local Tobacco Control Programs (TCP), but this program has seen its funding cut by over 50% from $85 million to $39.3 million in the past five years. These cuts have been made despite the fact that the state receives over $2 billion in revenues from tobacco taxes and still receives funds from the Master Settlement Agreement.

These cuts have led to the state dropping from 5th to 21st nationwide in the amount of funding spent in relation to the recommendations of the CDC. Now that the Governor has succeeded in stabilizing state revenues enough that he is proposing major tax cuts, we believe he must reverse this disproportionate cut which has harmed our ability to help even more smokers quit. Funding should be restored to $85 million for the Tobacco Control Program in the current budget.

We have continually emphasized the value of these programs not only in terms of lives that can be saved, but also in terms of the obvious savings in the state and federal health budgets. To not appreciate the value of such an investment is short-sighted in a state in which $2.7 billion in Medicaid expenses and $8 billion in overall health expenditures can be attributed to smoking.

Funds have also been cut for the Cancer Services Program (CSP) in recent years from $29.5 million to $24.8 million. This program provides screenings for persons without health insurance. Though the Affordable Care Act will help, there will remain nearly one million New Yorkers without health insurance who need these screenings for prostate, cervical, breast and colorectal cancer. Again we can save lives and dollars with early detection for those who have no insurance to see a health provider and be tested otherwise.

Nearly 270,000 New Yorkers walked in October in the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer events all across New York. They walked for their friends, family members and in memory of those who lost their battle with breast cancer. The people of this state are committed to fighting cancer, place a high priority on it and expect public leaders to partner with them by continuing to fund these programs in addition to all the private money that is raised. We need the state’s leadership to join us to finish the fight and we will seek funding increases in both programs.

Though we are dissatisfied by the commitment to these programs, we applaud the state’s commitment and success implementing the Affordable Care Act in our state which so far, has led to 325,000 persons signing up for new coverage. We are pleased that many cancer patients in need of coverage are able to take advantage of the new federal coverage and the expansion of Medicaid. We support the funding and leadership shown in making the outreach for the implementation widely accessible. Governor Cuomo took the lead with an Executive Order to establish the New York State of Health exchange, which has had a very vigorous outreach plan to ease the process and to seek opportunities to interact with the public.

We are pleased that the Governor has included language that will fix a situation that has led to millions of dollars in unspent funds for prostate cancer research in tax checkoff donations by taxpayers in the state over many years.

We also strongly support the Governor’s proposals to shield health consumers from “surprise medical bills” of thousands of dollars because they unknowingly were served by an out of network doctor or provider for a health care procedure.

Michael Burgess, Director
Government Relations
90 South Swan Street, Suite 200
518 449-5438, ext 1
[email protected]