It’s hardly news to anyone that cancer sucks. In the course of a lifetime, American men have a slightly less than 1 in 2 risk of developing cancer in their lifetimes. American women’s lifetime risk is slightly more than 1 in 3. Given these rates, it’s likely that you or someone you know has already faced a battle with cancer. If so, you know how devastating this illness can be to individuals and their families. Cancer wreaks havoc on the physical, emotional and financial health of those who must face it. It is also damaging to our communities and to our nation for many reasons, one of which is the premature loss of people who might have contributed greatly to our national history.
Jump over the fold with me to learn areas where greater support is needed and how you can make a difference in what for me, and for many of you, is a very personal issue.
My mother passed away in November after a courageous and awe-inspiring 9-year fight against stage 4 breast cancer. Cancer was never my friend, but it is now my mortal enemy. Cancer and I will fight to the death, figuratively for certain, and perhaps literally, given my drastically increased odds of developing breast cancer in my lifetime. I’ve recently begun my own personal cancer "degree plan" wherein I learn as much as I can about cancer and teach myself to be the best possible advocate I can for a cancer-free world. I’ll share with you what I’ve discovered so far, and ask that you join me to the extent that you can. While I've always espoused progressive policies and tried to live by a commandment that says the strong must protect the weak, I am relatively new to activism. I welcome any resources you might share that would help me be a better foot soldier in the war on cancer. And most of all, in the final paragraph of this diary, I will ask you to join me.
A full advocacy platform against a disease will typically include education and awareness campaigns, fundraising campaigns, and support programs for patients and their families. There is a fourth leg, however, that enjoins and supports the other pillars in the platform, and that is legislative advocacy. This is the area I’ll explore today. The many experienced legislative advocates of this community can be of great service to the cause, and I hope some of you will leave as new advocates in our national fight against cancer.
While awareness, prevention, detection and treatment have improved significantly in the last decade, we have not made enough progress. As a political issue, fighting cancer is easy for elected officials to embrace; no one is pro-cancer. But on the whole, our government has failed to meet its potential in joining the cause. And after too many years of an administration that continually puts the financial welfare of the privileged few over the general welfare of all, it is not surprising that we are falling further behind.
Many nonprofit organizations have previously been hobbled in their advocacy efforts in the political arena because of their tax exempt status. A new trend in the non-profit sector is to organize sister organizations to which donations are not tax exempt for the express purpose of lobbying.(Yeah, I know. I said lobbying.) You are almost certainly already familiar with the American Cancer Society, but you may not have heard of its nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN.) ACS CAN was launched in December of 2001 as a 501(c)(4) instead of a 501(c)(3) specifically so that it can organize electoral and legislative activity and hold elected officials accountable for important votes on cancer related issues. You can see the real differences in the missions of the two organizations here...
ACS Mission Statement
The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service.
And here is what ACS CAN is setting out to do
• Engage in more active lobbying and public policy efforts on cancer issues for our constituents.
• Educate the public and media more directly.
• Hold our lawmakers accountable for their votes on cancer issues.
• Create and distribute voter guides on specific health-related issues to volunteers and donors.
• Host debates, town forums, and other events where candidate views on issues are tested and discussed.
I’ll change formats here a bit now and talk about two things I’ve learned and what ACS CAN has helped me do about it. Because this site is so robust and full of information, I have quoted several sections of it and provided links to guide you to the most helpful information. The call to action is at the end of the diary, so if you have limited time for diary reading this morning, please scroll down to the end and step up for the cause if you can.
What I’ve Learned:
The federal government is the nation’s largest funder of cancer research. While this is encouraging on some fronts, in the 2008 federal budget, cancer research funding remained flat; requested increases for research funding were denied, with the exception of a %.10 for the National Cancer Institute . In case you were wondering,
In the final budget of his presidency, President Bush proposed eliminating or cutting funding for cancer programs, vital programs that could threaten the progress made in the disease that Americans fear most. His budget also failed to provide an increase in funding for cancer research, even refusing to provide a minimal increase to account for medical inflation.
Link
What I Did:
ACS CAN provided letter templates to send to my representative and senators on this issue. I received an acknowledgement only from my Congressman, Kenny Marchant. I do know, however, that he has signed the Congressional Cancer Promise. Kay Bailey Hutchison sent a lengthy personal response, and from all indications, her stands are quite respectable on cancer advocacy issues. The response from John Cornyn (I cringe just typing the name) was quite enlightening (for lack of a better term. I was too stunned to more accurately describe it.) Below are two excerpts
As you may know, on November 14, 2007, President George W. Bush vetoed the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 3043). H.R. 3043 requested an additional $10 billion in funding over what the President originally requested, and as such, H.R. 3043 was sent back to Congress for further consideration.
As a result, funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008 (P.L. 110–161). This bill combined eleven of the twelve annual appropriations bills and provided $145 billion in funding to the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Specifically, P.L. 110–161 provided increased funding for NCI by over $99 million. On December 26, 2007, President George W. Bush signed P.L. 110–161 into law.
This was discouraging, but expected, however the next paragraph said it all.
It is important to note that budgets of the various federal agencies, including HHS, are being squeezed because mandatory or entitlement programs—such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—are increasing at unsustainable rates and now comprise nearly two-thirds of the federal budget. In fact, they now comprise nearly two-thirds of the federal budget. If this urgent matter is not addressed, within thirty years the federal government will only have the resources to fund Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and a part of our interest on the national debt. Therefore, I believe that the best way to ensure adequate funding for important discretionary spending programs such as cancer research is to address the unsustainable growth of entitlement programs, while keeping our promise to the disabled, the elderly and poor children.
His response should have come with a barf bag.
What I need to do now, and you can help:
Work like hell to get Rick Noriega elected. Please visit Rick Noriega for Texas for information on how to support his candidacy. John. Cornyn. Must. Go. Away.
The other important thing I learned:
New Report: Uninsured More Likely to Die from CancerA new report from the American Cancer Society finds substantial evidence that lack of adequate health insurance coverage is associated with less access to care and poorer outcomes for cancer patients. The report also finds the uninsured are less likely to receive recommended cancer screening tests, are more likely to be diagnosed with later stage disease, and have lower survival rates than those with private insurance for several cancers.
Top Issues
I expect this issue will resonate most strongly with the community here, given our prolific and passionate discussions about health care. We have watched the growing crisis of uninsured Americans and simply by supporting our candidates, we are advocating for change.(Please, please, please, no candidate pimping or bashing in this diary.) Before my mother passed away, we had the chance to discuss this issue many times, and one of the things we talked about is a recent change in the American Cancer Society’s marketing efforts. Prior to last year, the American Cancer Society dedicated its marketing efforts exclusively to promoting smoking cessation. However, lack of insurance, and therefore lack of access to health care has become such a factor in cancer prevention, treatment and outcomes, that their primary marketing campaign is now "Access to Health Care." While they are nonpartisan and will not endorse a candidate nor a proposed health care reform plan from a candidate, they have set the following targets for a successful plan.
The Society has developed a series of threshold questions that must be answered in the evaluation of any legislative proposal. They are
- Does the proposal contain the essential components of availability, adequacy, affordability, and administrative simplicity?
- Does the reform plan reduce or eliminate segmentation of the health insurance market?
- Is the overall proposed financing realistic and adequate to sustain the proposed reforms?
The Society and ACS CAN will use these questions to evaluate active legislative proposals and may choose to endorse or oppose such proposals.
Will the Society or ACS CAN endorse pending legislative proposals for health care reform?
Numerous grassroots efforts are underway through ACS CAN as well, including apetition to be delivered during the campaign asking candidates to make health care access a top priority issue in their administration, and requests to legislators to sign the Congressional Cancer Promise or the State Cancer Promise.
What I did, and you can too:
I signed the petition, donated to and support the candidate that I feel would best represent cancer issues, and contacted my local state and federal representatives who have not yet pledged.
For the sake of brevity, I’ll stop here and just tell you the most important thing I did. I joined ACS CAN. They provide me with simple, accessible tools to keep up to date and active on cancer-related legislative issues. Please consider joining. You can join on my personal I CAN page or just drop by and sign my guest book. You can also join from the front page at American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. At the very least, please visit the web site to investigate advocacy areas that interest you. Joining ACS CAN requires a minimum donation of $10.00, but many of the activist tools can be accessed without a membership or site registration.
Please take a few moments, or a few hours, starting now to use your gifts as an advocate for progressive policies to take up this cause. The burden is light and the rewards will be priceless. Thank you all, for the wonderful people you are.
Cancer research, prevention and treatment.
- Make it an issue.
For Mom, with love, Kristina