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MBCC Members lobby on Capitol Hill for Guaranteed Access to Quality Health Care for All

Stop the Epidemic: The Newsletter of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition

Apr 01, 2004

As part of the Annual National Breast Cancer Coalition conference, staff, board members, and members of MBCC took part in an all-day lobbying effort to push for the four priorities outlined by the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). The first of these priorities is Guaranteed Access to Quality Health Care for All. Since its inception in 1991, NBCC has advocated for comprehensive, quality health care as a basic human right. Health care must be available to all individuals regardless of their ability to pay. The Coalition’s mission is to eradicate breast cancer. The right research will help in this mission, but only if individuals have access to the results. All individuals must have access to comprehensive health care, from preventive measures and treatment to end-of-life interventions.

CRITICAL NEED FOR HEALTH COVERAGE
All women must have access to quality care. This means being able to get appropriate care when it is needed. A necessary component of access is having a way to pay for health care, whether through traditional models such as insurance or new systems. The lack of affordable health coverage is a severe and growing problem. Those with no or inadequate coverage face serious health consequences. For example, in a May 2002 report titled, Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that 18,000 Americans die prematurely each year due to lack of health insurance. Later, in its January 2004 report titled Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations, the IOM determined that lack of health insurance places a heavy economic burden on our communities and the entire country. In this report, the IOM recommends that everyone in the US should have health insurance by the year 2010.

NBCC strives to ensure that all women at risk of or diagnosed with breast cancer have access to high quality breast cancer care. NBCC has succeeded in making incremental and targeted changes to expand access to health care for at least some uninsured and underinsured women. For instance, through passage of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act (P.L. 106-354), NBCC helped secure Medicaid coverage for low-income, uninsured women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through a federal screening program. While thousands of low-income women now have coverage for their treatment, that Act alone is just one step in ensuring access to quality care for all.

NBCC PRINCIPLES FOR HEALTH COVERAGE

• Health care is a basic human right.
• Health care is fundamental to maintaining a productive society.
• Health care coverage must be guaranteed for everyone.
• The health care system must provide the same comprehensive benefits to everyone and must meet the public’s expectations.
• The health care system must be redesigned so that treatment and coverage decisions are based on evidence and best practices.
• All individuals must financially contribute to the system, based on ability to pay.
• The new health care system must be easy to use for patients and providers, and easy to administer.
• Any system of coverage must include these core values:
• Access. Individuals must be able to get all the care they need when they need it. This must include meaningful access to evidence-based interventions.
• Information. Individuals must receive information that is evidence-based, objective, complete, and correct.
• Choice. Individuals must have some choice of doctors and care.
• Respect. Our health care system must treat the whole person, not just a person’s disease.
• Accountability. Standards regarding care must be clear, uniform, and enforceable. Patients must have a right to sue if their basic human right to health care is violated.
• Improvement. The health care system must have methods for measuring what is and is not working so that the quality of care can continuously be improved. Individuals must have access to well designed and efficiently run clinical trials, and must have coverage of all routine care costs associated with participation in such trials.

ACTION REQUESTED
NBCC’s goal for the 108th Congress is to move beyond incremental approaches toward public policy that guarantees coverage to all individuals. NBCC is researching viable policy options that will accomplish this goal and reflect the above principles. We urge that Congress work with NBCC advocates in supporting a coverage option that will give all individuals access to comprehensive and high quality health care.

MBCC will continue to support the NBCC priorities that are in line MBCC’s mission of challenging all obstacles to the eradication of this disease.

NBCC 2004 Legislative Priorities:

1. Guaranteed access to quality health care for all. We will not end breast cancer until all women have guaranteed access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay.
2. A $150 million appropriation for the Department of Defense peer-reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program for fiscal year 2004.
3. Passage of legislation that would authorize funding for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to research links between breast cancer and the environment.
4. Passage of legislation prohibiting health insurance and employment discrimination based on genetic information.

A PROFILE OF INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT HEALTH COVERAGE
Most uninsured people are members of working families. Nearly 44 million people in America do not have health insurance, and 74% of them belong to families with at least one person working full-time.

Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition
1419 Hancock Street, Suite 202, Quincy, MA 02169 • Ph.(617) 376-6222 • Fx.(617) 376-6221 • toll free: 1-800-649-6222
www.mbcc.org Email: info@mbcc.org

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