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New Report Illustrates Important Role of Medicare Program in Saving Lives from Cancer

Chartbook Makes Public Policy Recommendations to Strengthen Medicare Program

January 29, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 29, 2024 – The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) released a new report today, Cancer in Medicare: An American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Chartbook, to illustrate how the Medicare program serves patients across the cancer continuum as well as specific public policy recommendations to improve and strengthen the program. Given an individual’s cancer risk increases with age, Medicare plays a key role in reducing suffering and death from cancer. 

ACS CAN’s Medicare Chartbook provides an overview of the Medicare program and its benefits, including how cancer impacts the program, the financial impact on program spending, the role of Congress in creating meaningful coverage changes for Medicare beneficiaries on cancer screening and the out-of-pocket costs to beneficiaries. 

Medicare is vitally important to older Americans because the risk of cancer increases with age. In 2023, an estimated 1.7 million individuals living in the U.S. are projected to be diagnosed with cancer, 1 million of whom rely on the Medicare program as their primary source of health care coverage. 

The full chartbook can be found here.

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