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Coronavirus and Cancer Resources for Survivors
Cancer survivors have expressed concerns and questions about COVID-19, the coronavirus, and how they may be at higher risk due to their cancer history. Here are some resources about COVID-19 generally, and its impact for cancer survivors specifically. NCCS is seeking answers from public health experts on the coronavirus and its impact on cancer patients and survivors. Please leave a comment [...]
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What Caught Our Eye: ACA Individual Mandate Explainer, Medicaid Work Requirements, Metastatic Breast Cancer Research, and More
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE), November 17, 2017 — “Obamacare’s individual mandate, the new target in the GOP tax plan, explained” | The revised Senate tax bill would repeal the individual mandate. Repealing the mandate — which is the gear that makes the Affordable Care Act tick — would save more than $300 billion over 10 years, but only because millions fewer Americans would have health insurance, according to the Congressional [...]
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ACA Update | November 17, 2017 – Tax and Health Care Repeal Bill Passes House, Focus Shifts to Upcoming Senate Vote
The tax bill has officially turned into a health care bill. Last week, we learned the House version of the tax bill would eliminate the medical expense deduction. This deduction is a lifeline for cancer patients who claim it, as cancer care and the enormous out-of-pocket costs associated with it often result in financial toxicity and financial distress. As the LA Times reports, “What’s cruelest about the effort to repeal the medical expense deduction [...]
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NCCS Joins Letter to Congress Opposing Health Care Cuts in Tax Reform Legislation
NCCS and the 11 other member organizations of the Cancer Leadership Council sent a letter to Congress expressing "serious concerns…
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Seeing the Bigger Picture of Survival Through Patient Advocacy
As patient advocates (as in most other things in life), it seems the more we learn, the more see what we don’t know. Whether we’re involved in promoting a patient-centered approach to research, direct care, survivorship, policy change or education, there’s a daily twist and update for us to wrap our brains around. And no matter which arena we find ourselves in, we are always looking for the endpoint: How far have we come in cancer care, and how does [...]
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The Dempsey Center – An Oasis for Anyone Facing Cancer in Maine
On behalf of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Lewiston, Maine, in October for the annual Dempsey Challenge. Hundreds of cyclists rode between 10 and 100 miles to raise funds for the Dempsey Center. After attending the cancer survivors’ walk with hundreds of local survivors, patients and advocates, I had the chance to visit the Dempsey Center to see first-hand the incredible programs and services [...]
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NCCS Joins AARP In Opposing Medical Expense Deduction Repeal
NCCS joined a letter, spearheaded by AARP and sent to all members of the House of Representatives, opposing the proposed elimination…
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What Caught Our Eye: ACA Open Enrollment Info, Tax Bill Eliminates Medical Expense Deduction, A Young Med Student’s Lymphoma Story
What Caught Our Eye (WCOE) is our week-in-review blog series, where we recap the cancer policy articles, studies, and stories that caught our attention. Affordable Care Act – It’s Open Enrollment Season! Do You Know Your Health Insurance? – It’s officially “open enrollment season” and that means millions of Americans are about to dive into an alphabet soup of insurance choices. To help with this problem, Merck collaborated with health literacy [...]