Portland, Ore. – October 2, 2015 – This week, Seaside resident Lois Fitzpatrick joined more than 750 cancer patients, survivors, volunteers and staff from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district in Washington, D.C., as part of the annual American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) Leadership Summit and Lobby Day. Advocates urged Congress to take specific steps to help end a disease that still kills 1,600 Americans every day.
On Tuesday, Fitzpatrick met Sens. Merkley and Wyden and Reps. Bonamici and Walden to discuss the need to support an increase in federal funding for cancer research. She also asked them to co-sponsor legislation that supports patients’ quality of life, and to support legislation that would make colorectal cancer screenings more affordable for Medicare patients.
“This year, more than 1.6 million Americans, including 22,410 Oregonians, will hear the words ‘you have cancer.’ Congress has a critical role to play in helping us reduce that number in the future. As a 20-year breast cancer survivor, I let Oregon’s members of Congress know that they can commit to the fight against cancer by supporting lifesaving cancer policies and research," said Fitzpatrick, the ASC CAN Oregon lead volunteer.
Specifically, Fitzpatrick and her fellow Oregon advocates asked their members of Congress to:
- Support a $6 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with $1 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) over the next two years. None of us are more than One Degree from someone with cancer. Each dollar Congress cuts from the NIH and NCI budgets puts us one step further from offering hope to so many Americans. There is perhaps no better way for Congress to demonstrate support for the fight against cancer than by funding that fight.
- Co-sponsor legislation to improve the quality of life of cancer patients with better access to palliative care. From the moment a person hears “you have cancer,” they may deal with pain, stress and other side effects. The problem may worsen with poor coordination among doctors, nurses and specialists on a patient’s treatment team. Palliative care offers an extra layer of support. In addition to curative treatment, it often includes a palliative care specialist, a nurse, a social worker, a pharmacist and a psychologist to better coordinate care and manage symptoms.
- Co-sponsor the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screenings Act. An estimated 50,000 Americans will die from colorectal cancer this year. Half of these deaths could be prevented yearly if everyone over 50 received screening. The biggest barriers to screening are copayments and other out-of-pocket costs. While co-pays have been mostly eliminated with private insurance, Medicare patients can still pay out of pocket if a polyp is found, changing their colonoscopy from “screening” to diagnostic. By passing legislation to repair this rule, Congress could help get 80 percent of eligible Americans regularly screened for colorectal cancer by 2018.
“We need an unwavering commitment from Congress to prevent and treat cancer,” said Fitzpatrick. “We want our lawmakers to know that Oregon’s volunteers, and those from every state, are counting on them to take action now.”
The ACS CAN Lobby Day culminated with an evening Lights of Hope ceremony in front of the U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool featuring thousands of lights lit in honor of a cancer survivor or to memorialize a loved one who lost his or her fight with the disease.
ACS CAN is the non-profit, non-partisan advocacy affiliate organization of the American Cancer Society, which is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage lawmakers, candidates and government officials to support laws and policies that will make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer.
