ACS CAN 2022 New York State Legislative Priorities

Approximately 120,000 New Yorkers will be diagnosed with cancer this year. Victory in the fight against cancer requires bold new public policies that promote cancer prevention, early detection of cancer, and expand access to quality, affordable health care. In 2022, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) will work with state policy makers in support of the following priorities:

Cancer Prevention and Early Detection

• Cancer Services Program: Disparities in screening rates have long contributed to health disparities overall. The pandemic has only served to exacerbate the disparities in cancer screening. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers having been forced to delay screening. To help ensure that New Yorkers get back to screening, ACS CAN will advocate for New York to increase funding for evidence-based cancer services to provide screening, patient navigation and education by $2 million in Fiscal Year 2022-2023 bringing the annual total to $21.8 million.

Ensuring Access to Quality Care

• Reducing Out of Pocket Costs for Colorectal Cancer Screening—Colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death in New York. New Yorkers are increasingly opting for less-invasive colorectal cancer screening tests that can be administered at home. While these tests are covered by insurance, patients can face large out-of-pocket costs if a follow-up colonoscopy is deemed necessary by their doctor. To ensure that cost is not a barrier to screening, ACS CAN will advocate for legislation that will eliminate patient cost-sharing for colonoscopies following a positive stool-based screening test for colorectal cancer.
• Biomarker Testing--Biomarkers are an essential part of precision medicine, providing insight into physiological processes, medical conditions, or diseases. Biomarker testing is the analysis of a patient’s tissue, blood, or fluid biospecimen for the presence of a biomarker. The results of these biomarker tests can help determine the best treatment plan for a specific patient, including precision medicines. ACS CAN will advocate for legislation that will expand appropriate coverage of biomarker testing for public and private insurance plans.
• Copay accumulator—Many patients rely on financial assistance programs, such as a copay coupon or card, to reduce the cost of their medication. But insurers increasingly are using a new tactic – called a copay accumulator adjustment, to undermine these financial assistance programs. Copay accumulator adjustments prevent patients from getting the savings they need to afford their medications. ACS CAN will advocate for legislation that will help patients struggling to pay for their medication by ensuring such payments are counted towards a patient’s out-of-pocket cost requirements.

Reducing the Toll of Tobacco

• Tobacco Taxes: Increasing the cigarette tax by at least $1.00 per pack with an increase in the tax on other tobacco products to parallel the new rate is one of the most effective ways to prevent more people from starting and encourage people who currently smoke to quit. ACS CAN will advocate for such a tax increase with revenues to be used to sustain evidence-based, statewide tobacco use prevention and cessation programs.
• Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Funding: A well-funded tobacco control program will not only produce long-term savings but can have an immediate benefit on the health of New Yorkers. With nearly 28,000 New Yorkers losing their lives to smoking each year New York needs to continue investing in tobacco control if it is to further reduce state tobacco use. COVID-19 has magnified the urgent need to further reduce smoking rates. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a person who currently or formerly has smoked cigarettes can be more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19. After more than a decade of declining funding, ACS CAN will advocate that New York increase funding for evidence-based, statewide tobacco use prevention and cessation programs by $12.24 million in Fiscal Year 2022-2023 bringing the total to $52 million annually.
• Flavored Tobacco: Tobacco companies have been hooking our kids for years with enticing flavors like grape, chocolate, “banana smash,” and “smooth menthol.” Black communities have paid the highest price for Big Tobacco’s immoral targeting of communities of color and low-income New Yorkers. ACS CAN will advocate for legislation that will ending the sale of ALL flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes.
• Access to Tobacco Cessation: Ensuring counseling services provided by the NYS Quitline to Medicaid enrollees are reimbursed by Medicaid is critical to helping people quit. ACS CAN will work to ensure that all commercial health plans provide a comprehensive cessation benefit that covers individual, group, and telephone counseling and all FDA-approved tobacco cessation medications without cost-sharing or other barriers to accessing care.

Quality of Life

• Protecting Access to Pain Medication for Cancer Patients: The prescribing of opioid pain medications must balance the need for safe prescribing and dispensing of pain management medication and not interfere with access to these medicines for the cancer patients and survivors who need them. ACS CAN will monitor legislative proposals that address these critical issues.

For more information, contact:
Michael Davoli, Senior Director, Government Relations, ACS CAN / [email protected] / 518.209.0447

ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network • www.fightcancer.org/NY