Access to Care

Access to quality, affordable cancer care is essential for anyone with a cancer diagnosis. Access includes adequate health insurance that covers needed treatments without leaving people with cancer to suffer “financial toxicity.” People with cancer also need the ability to participate in a clinical trial, if it represents a potential treatment option.

Prior to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), cancer survivors were at the mercy of the health care system, often forced to pay exorbitant premiums or simply denied coverage altogether. Today, America’s 18.1 million cancer survivors benefit from the ACA’s patient protections that provide them with quality, affordable, and accessible health care coverage. Through the ACA, cancer patients and survivors can now purchase insurance through Healthcare.gov and state insurance exchanges. The ACA has afforded protections related to out-of-pocket expenses, lifetime caps, and pre-existing conditions.

NCCS believes in the following principles for access to care:

Individuals with pre-existing conditions must not be denied coverage or charged higher premiums.
Plans must cover all essential health care needs.
Adequate financial assistance must be provided to ensure people with low and moderate incomes can purchase health insurance.
Insurers must not discriminate against older Americans, who are disproportionately impacted by cancer, or women.
Cost-sharing protections must be maintained, including caps on out-of-pocket costs and the elimination of annual and lifetime maximum benefits.
States should take advantage of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, which provides coverage to low income individuals living with cancer.
People with pre-existing conditions must not be segregated into high-risk pools, which are expensive and burdensome and do not meet the needs of cancer patients.
Cancer patients must have access to comprehensive and well-coordinated cancer care, including clinical trials.

“For a cancer survivor, dealing with the collateral damage of cancer treatment and the continued surveillance for recurrence or secondary cancers, going without insurance is simply not an option. I am very worried that the proposed replacement for the ACA will harm cancer survivors, particularly people with low incomes and people over the age of 50. We simply can’t go back to the days before the ACA when cancer survivors could be denied coverage, and we must ensure people have access to quality, affordable health insurance.”

Michael Kappel, NCCS board member and 13-year colon cancer survivor

Lisa Rice – My Breast Cancer Journey: Many Lessons Learned and More in Store

April 20, 2023

During my final semester of college, a life-changing call came. My mother was in the hospital, waiting for results of a biopsy of a tumor she’d found in her breast. My father told me that she’d already decided, if the tumor was malignant, she would proceed with a radical mastectomy [...]

Ruth Travis: Cancer Is Not a Death Sentence. It’s a License to Live.

April 6, 2023

Ruth Travis knows the power of early detection. She started getting regular mammograms when she was 40 years old. After 22 years, the annual process was nothing new. In 2007, Ruth arrived for her annual screening mammogram [...]

NCCS Joins With Patient Advocates and Health Care Professionals to Call on CMS to Ensure Access to DIEP Flap Breast Reconstruction

April 3, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC, April 3, 2023 – Advocates for individuals in need of breast reconstruction surgery delivered a letter and petition…

NCCS Urges President Biden and Congress to Support and Protect Medicaid

March 24, 2023

This week, NCCS joined with more than 30 patient advocacy organizations as part of the Partnership to Protect Coverage to urge President…

NCCS Advocates for Access to DIEP Flap Breast Reconstruction Surgery

March 10, 2023

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship recently joined the Community Breast Reconstruction Alliance (CBRA), a group of patient…

NCCS Advocate Spotlight: Betsy Glosik, A Cancer Survivor's Journey Through Integrative Healing and Advocacy

Betsy Glosik: A Cancer Survivor’s Journey Towards Integrative Healing and Advocacy

March 8, 2023

For Betsy Glosik, the early 2000s brought one trauma after another. She lost her aunt to melanoma. Then, tragically she lost her 20-yr old daughter to a car accident. In 2003, after years of mentioning her concerns about a mole on her foot to her dermatologist, and repeatedly having her concerns dismissed, Betsy was diagnosed with melanoma...

Implementing-ASCO-Guidelines-Webinar-Post-web

Webinar – Implementing the ASCO Guidelines for Exercise, Nutrition, and Weight Management with Your Patients and Practice

March 3, 2023

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) hosted a Survivorship Champions webinar discussing the American Society for Clinical…

Norrisa Haynes, MD How to Lead a Heart Healthy Life Webinar

Webinar – How to Lead a Heart Healthy Life – Norrisa Haynes, MD

February 17, 2023

In this webinar hosted by NCCS, Cardiologist Dr. Norrisa Haynes of Yale University presents the basics of heart disease, including…

Brett Wilson – Navigating Childhood Cancer and Finding Purpose in Advocacy

September 13, 2023

Advocate Spotlight: Brett Wilson Brett Wilson's cancer experience started when she was just two years old. Her mother was concerned…

Registration Open: 2023 State of Survivorship Survey Results Briefing | October 3

September 7, 2023

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) conducts an annual State of Survivorship Survey, in partnership with Edge…

CMS Announces It Will Retain Breast Reconstruction Codes, A Reversal That Protects Patient Access to DIEP Flap Surgery

August 22, 2023

Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will retain procedure codes for breast cancer reconstruction,…

Become a Survivorship Champion

Survivorship Champions is a program for all clinicians and researchers, both oncology and primary care, who are interested in improving survivorship care and primary care’s role in caring for cancer survivors.

Learn More and Join »

Join CPAT

The NCCS Cancer Policy & Advocacy Team (CPAT) is a program for survivors and caregivers to learn about pressing policy issues that affect quality cancer care in order to be engaged as advocates in public policy around the needs of cancer survivors.

Learn More and Join »

Share Your Story

NCCS represents the millions of Americans who share a common experience – living with, through and beyond a cancer diagnosis. By sharing your story of how you have been touched by cancer, you are supporting the national cancer survivorship movement.

Share Your Story »

STAY CONNECTED

Together we can improve cancer care for survivors! Sign up to be the first to know about cancer policy issues and ways to take action

National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
8455 Colesville Road | Suite 930 | Silver Spring, MD 20910
877-NCCS-YES | info@canceradvocacy.org
Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions

Copyright © 1995-2023 by the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, NCCS, Cancer Survival Toolbox, and related Logos are registered in the United States as trademarks of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.

Access to Care

Take Action

Become a Survivorship Champion

Join CPAT

Share Your Story

STAY CONNECTED