WASHINGTON – March 19, 2010 – Volunteers from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) this week have delivered 56,000 signed petitions to congressional offices across the country urging lawmakers from both political parties to seize this historic opportunity and pass meaningful health reform. Over the past three weeks ACS CAN worked with groups representing patients, consumers and people of faith to gather signatures on petitions calling for health reform that improves access to quality coverage and lowers the costs of health care.
“Though the fight for health care reform has not been easy, we've come too far and accomplished too much to let this effort fail,” the petition reads. “Now is not the time to turn back. To our leaders in Congress, we say: Move forward and pass health care reform.”
“Cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones are carrying the message to their elected officials that our nation's health care system is not meeting the needs of its people,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of ACS CAN, the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society. “Lawmakers need to put patients before politics and pass meaningful health care legislation now. It’s time to act.”
ACS CAN joined forces with leading health groups Community Catalyst, LIVESTRONG, and, PICO National Network to deliver the petitions. Local cancer survivors and their families participated in the petition drop-offs, representing the millions of Americans who have fallen through the cracks of the current broken health care system.
The petition is the latest step in an effort dating back to early 2006 when the volunteer and staff leadership of the American Cancer Society concluded that in order to reach nationwide goals for reducing suffering and death related to cancer, all Americans would need access to health care that is adequate, available, affordable and administratively simple. The decision was supported by published American Cancer Society scientific research showing that people who are uninsured are more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced cancer that is harder to treat and more difficult to survive than those with Access to Health Care.
As the leading voice of patients in the health care reform debate, ACS CAN continues to work with a broad cross-section of stakeholders to build momentum for reform nationwide. Families affected by cancer need meaningful reform that will improve their care by refocusing the nation’s health care system to emphasize prevention, ending the practice of denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, limiting the cost burden on families by providing care that costs less and covers more, and emphasizing patients’ quality of life.
“The sobering reality is that tens of millions of families across the country are one cancer diagnosis away from financial catastrophe,” said Robert E. Youle, a cancer survivor and volunteer chair of ACS CAN’s Board of Directors. “We need to reform the health system to improve the lives of those with cancer so that no one ever has to make a choice between their life or their lifesavings.”
For more information about ACS CAN’s efforts in support of health care reform, visit https://www.fightcancer.org.
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 national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
For More Information, Contact:
Alissa Havens or Steven Weiss
Phone: 202-661-5772 or 202-661-5711
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]