ACS CAN Florida Advocacy Hub

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Welcome Cancer Fighting Advocates! 

You have found your way to the epicenter for all of the volunteer information for the priorites we are working on in the Sunshine State! The Florida Legislature is gearing up for the 2025 Legislative Session & we are consistantly, eargerly working in Washington D.C. to make sure that our voices are heard all across the country!

Make plans to return to this page regularly for updates, actions, and materials to help you amplify your voice & grow your relationships with Floridian lawmakers.

First Things First: 

Media Advocacy 

  • ACS CAN Connection- Join our Facebook group of active volunteers to connect with volunteers from across the country, share ideas, and hear about inspiring wins. Be sure to answer the three screening questions when you request membership into the group. 
  • Patch.com- You can use Patch.com to publish stories about your advocacy work in your local community for free. 
  • Have an idea to publish an op-ed or promote our mission through media opportunities?

What Are We Working Towards?

Glad that you asked! Our 2025 ACS CAN Florida Priorities included:

  • Reducing The Toll of Tobacco
  • Cancer Prevention and Early Dectection
  • Cancer Research Funding
  • Ensuring Access To Quality Care

Learn more about our 2024 Florida Legislative Session Priority Outcomes!  

Click Here To Complete Your Report Back Form

2025 Florida Legislative Agenda: 

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. Lawmakers make many decisions that impact the lives of Floridians impacted by cancer and their leadership is vital to defeating this disease. In 2025, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) will work with the Florida Legislature on initiatives to provide affordable, adequate access to health insurance including Medicaid, and to ensure adequate funding for cancer research, lifesaving cancer screening programs, and comprehensive tobacco education and prevention.

Ensuring Access to Quality Care       Cancer Prevention & Early Detection

Medicaid Expansion

Cancer Research Funding                    Reducing the Toll of Tobacco

Click here for an indepth dive into our 2025 Florida Legislative Agenda.

Need help figuring out who your state elected officials are? Click Here and watch this helpful video!

Federal Priorities:

The priorities include:
• Completing the FY25 Funding Bill and Increasing Cancer Research and Prevention Funding (NIH, NCI, ARPA-H, CDC)
• Extending the ACA Enhanced Tax Credits
• Protecting Medicaid
• Enacting Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Legislation (included in the December Health Care package)

Cancer Research and Prevention Funding

  •  Increased Funding Levels for Cancer Research and Prevention. ACS CAN advocates to ensure continued progress in the fight against cancer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) cancer programs. Our FY25 funding asks include:

- Cancer Prevention Early Detection and Screening 

  • Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage (MCED) HR 842/S339 - ACS CAN advocates for the passage of legislation to improve access to new and innovative cancer screenings for Medicare beneficiaries by creating a pathway to allow Medicare to initiate coverage of multi-cancer tests following FDA approval if a clinical benefit is shown.

  • Screening for Communities to Receive Early and Equitable Needed Services (SCREENS for Cancer) Act. ACS CAN supports the reauthorization of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) for fiscal years 2024 through 2028 to provide the program greater flexibility in providing access to lifesaving screening, diagnostic, and treatment services and continue its innovative work aimed to reduce disparities and advance health equity in breast and cervical cancer.

- PDF icon Multi-Cancer Screening Fact Sheet

 - PSA Screening for HIM Act. (HR 1300/S297)

  • ACS CAN advocates for passage of legislation to remove cost sharing of PSA testing for those at the highest risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer — African American men and men with a family history of prostate cancer.

- PDF icon PSA for HIM Fact Sheet

- PDF icon IMPACT Black Men Prostate Cancer Initative

For more on our Federal work and "What We Do", Click Here! 

Join an ACS CAN Affinity Group! 

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) is committed to ensuring everyone has a fair and just opportunity to prevent find, treat, and survive cancer. We know that cancer impacts everyone, but it doesn’t impact everyone equally, and that is why diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital to ending cancer as we know it, for everyone. ACS CAN is centering the lived experiences and voices of our diverse volunteer leaders through our affinity groups that influence, strengthen, and diversity communications, messaging, partnerships, policy initiatives, and volunteer recruitment, training, and engagement within their communities. To learn more, download the ACS CAN Affinity Group one-pager and visit their individual pages! 

Documents Quick Links: 

Want Even More?

Questions? Drop Us A Line!

Natalie Kliné (Habla español o inglés) - South Florida & Puerto Rico Senior Grassroots Manager (Everything East of Lake Okeechobee and the entire Island)

Serena Rodrigues - Central Florida Grassroots Manager (I-4 and Everything West of Lake Okeechobee)

Storm Goodlin - North Florida Senior Grassroots Manager (Everything North of I-4)

Medicaid Expansion & The End of Continuous Coverage in Florida

What does unwinding continuous coverage have to do with Medicaid expansion?

  • During the pandemic, Congress put in place continuous coverage protections to ensure that Medicaid enrollees were able to keep their health coverage without needing to re-enroll.
  • These protections will end as soon as April 1st, 2023.
  • States will begin reviewing the eligibility of every person enrolled in Medicaid, and drop coverage for those who no longer qualify or do not provide updated information.
  • 342,000 Floridians are now at risk of losing their health coverage and access to the care they need to get and stay healthy.
  • The stakes are not the same throughout the country. Those living in Florida will have fewer options for affordable health coverage than their peer states that have expanded Medicaid.
  • Many of the Floridians who are disenrolled from Medicaid coverage will be at high risk of falling into the coverage gap and becoming uninsured.
  • 790,000 people are already in the Medicaid gap waiting for legislator action. With the end of continuous coverage, the situation for the uninsured will further worsen.
  • This situation could have been avoided if Florida policymakers had mobilized to expand Medicaid sooner.

Why does Medicaid expansion matter to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN)?

ACS CAN is dedicated to improving the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. Expanding access to Medicaid is a critical component in the fight against cancer and toward achieving health equity. Two million people in 11 states across the country are living without health insurance simply because they live in a state that has refused to expand Medicaid. These people fall into the “coverage gap” between qualifying for Medicaid and being able to afford private insurance. The vast majority are people of color. Interruptions in insurance, like those that will result from the unwinding of continuous coverage, can have catastrophic effects on cancer patients who cannot delay treatment. Access to affordable coverage like Medicaid significantly improves chances of diagnosing, treating, and surviving cancer. Medicaid expansion matters to ACS CAN because it helps people living in the gap get the lifesaving care they need.

Medicaid Covers US: Florida

Visit our campaign page to learn more about Medicaid Covers US, our campaign to promote Medicaid as one part of the solution to achieve health equity in the US. Health coverage is something we all need, and we all deserve. It’s time to close the gap.

Read more
ACS CAN Lights of Hope Display inside the Florida Capitol, in front of the Governor's Office

Share Your Cancer Story

Your story distinguishes you from a statistic or a policy. It's what puts a human face on a disease that impacts millions of Americans every year. Your lawmakers are overwhelmed with numbers and studies; what they need most are stories about people - real people in their own community and
Share How Cancer Has Impacted Your Life.

Your Support CAN fight Cancer