Many of you ask how you could help…and we’re grateful you’ve asked!
Here is one way. Please contact your Congressmen and Senator’s offices and ask them to make these bills a priority. These two important Congressional bills have been sitting on the House and Senate floors for year and half. We need to get them moving.
Metastatic Breast Cancer patients don’t have lobbyists working on their behalf; they have volunteers. Join my team and please help ‘all’ cancer patients. Thank you. And please share this message with your friends and family.
• The Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act (House: H.R. 3183, Senate S. 1312): This legislation would fast-track disability and federal healthcare benefits for individuals with metastatic breast cancer. Under current law, a person with metastatic breast cancer must wait five months after applying for Social Security Disability benefits to begin receiving those payments. Also, that person must wait an additional 24 months after disability benefits begin before receiving Medicare insurance coverage. This delay creates obvious hardships for people with metastatic breast cancer as they struggle to pay medical expenses. This delay also ensures that many people with MBC are unable to collect the benefits that they paid into the system because of their reduced lifespan, currently averaging 33 months after diagnosis.
• The Cancer Drug Parity Act (House: H.R. 4385, Senate: S. 3080): This legislation would prevent various agencies and health insurers from refusing to pay for more costly medications that doctors prescribe because they are best for their patients. It would also prevent insurers from charging different co-pays for identical treatments in different locations, such as home versus a doctor’s office, or a doctor’s office versus a hospital.
Thanks!