Press Room

State lawmakers across the country are missing important opportunities to pass and implement proven legislative solutions to prevent and fight cancer, according to a report released today by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). How Do You Measure Up?: A Progress Report on State Legislative Activity to Reduce Cancer Incidence and Mortality grades states on the strength of evidence-based policies that help to prevent cancer, which kills roughly 1,670 people a day nationwide, forces patients to pay nearly $4 billion in out-of-pocket expenses every year and in 2015 cost the country more than $80 billion in direct medical expenditures. 

Washington, D.C. – Today the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health is scheduled to markup the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA).

Washington, D.C. – Advocates and volunteers from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) will join the Patient Quality of Life Coalition (PQLC) on Capitol Hill today to share their stories with lawmakers as part of the coalition’s annual advocacy day.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), together with the Patient Quality of Life Coalition (PQLC), released data today indicating that in the past two years cancer patients, survivors and others living with serious illnesses have experienced greater difficulty accessing their needed pain medication.

The law places limits on step therapy policies used by insurance companies that require patients to try less expensive, potentially less effective drugs before they can get coverage for the prescriptions their physicians recommend.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) marked up the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) held a hearing on the Opioid Crisis Response Act of 2018.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final Medicare rule yesterday that did not include a proposal that would have set hard limits on opioid pain medication at the pharmacy unless an insurer authorized special permission for a larger dose.

Eunice Hosttetter, a breast cancer survivor from Kirkland, Wash., was honored as the State Lead Ambassador of the Year by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) for her commitment to cancer advocacy. 

Yesterday, the Tennessee Legislature passed SB 1170 that will establish a state task force on palliative care and quality of life.