Letter: Bill supports biomarker testing
This letter originally ran in the Lincoln Journal Star.
News
How Do You Measure Up 2016: A Progress Report on State Legislative Activity to Reduce Cancer Incidence and Mortality
August 11, 2016
ACS CAN amplifies the voice of people touched by cancer by working with lawmakers to pass and implement laws and policies that improve the lives of patients, survivors and their families. Our 14th annual How Do You Measure Up? report highlights policies proven to prevent and better treat cancer that states are progressively working toward to save lives and reduce pain and suffering from cancer. How Do You Measure Up? measures states on 10 key policy issues, including efforts to protect young people from the dangers of tobacco and indoor tanning, to help ensure access to potentially lifesaving cancer screenings and to improve patient quality of life. It also highlights other important topics such as healthy eating, staying active and state cancer research funding. This in-depth report reviews how every state, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories measure up on life-saving cancer-fighting strategies. And, as is noted throughout the report every state has more work to do to prevent cancer and support those who will receive the unfortunate news of a cancer diagnosis. There are many trending highlights in the report that showcase the hard work of our volunteers. One of the biggest trends is around improvements with insurance coverage of chemotherapy taken in pill form, with 43 states now meeting our benchmark for this area. Tobacco control funding and Medicaid coverage of tobacco cessation treatments are the least met benchmarks with only five states considered doing well in each category. This is particularly disturbing since tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death nationwide and claims almost half a million lives annually. Overall, 3.9 percent of the states are doing well, 68.6 percent are making progress and 27.5 percent of states are falling behind. So, how does your state measure up? Check our report to see if theyÈre falling short, making progress or doing well in helping our nation and their residents win the fight against cancer.