Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act Update

By Holly Anderson, NBCC Board Member and Team Leader

The mission of the Advocacy Committee is to create and maintain relationships with local, state, and national officials, specifically to advocate for relevant bills and public policy as these relate to breast and gynecologic cancers. Given the prevalence of breast cancer, legislation often begins there, however our success often opens the door for others to advocate for inclusion of other cancers and diseases. We work with local, state, and national elected officials to help them understand that breast cancer remains a major health issue in this country affecting millions of families.

For the last few years, we have put forth a major effort to pass the Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act (H.R. 549 and S. 663), a bill that would waive the mandatory 5-month wait for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and 2-year wait for Medicare for those under the age of 65 who qualify for early admission to this program. These are our younger survivors who have now learned they are living with a life-ending illness. Either they were diagnosed with late Stage IV disease from the onset or they were diagnosed early, but their disease progressed despite treatment. They live and work among us. Some are single, divorced or widowed, while others have families. They own homes, work hard, and have paid into this system all their adult lives. Too many of them carry heavy personal responsibilities and must work to retain their employee-supported healthcare. They are exhausted from the treatment that keeps them alive while balancing work, family activities, and caring for aging parents. At the point where they can no longer work, they qualify for SSDI, yet who among us can go five months without income while waiting out the mandatory 5-month period? And what will they do for healthcare without income while awaiting the 2-year mandatory period for Medicare? This is impossible.

We are grateful to our House of Representatives members who get it… those who have signed on as cosponsors of this legislation. Every single Representative from New York, both Republican and Democrat, is in support of this bill except for one: Congresswoman Claudia Tenney. Ms. Tenney could be a powerful advocate. She is on the House Ways and Means Committee. We don’t understand her indifference. She is not responding to calls from us, or from her own constituents.

We need your help.

Please reach out to Ms. Tenney and ask her for her immediate support for the Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act (HR 549).

• Washington, DC: (202) 225-3665
• Victor: (585) 869-2060
• Lockport: (716) 514-5130
• Oswego: (315) 236-7088

This has been a discouraging process but National Breast Cancer Coalition* advocates from across the country are pushing hard for passage. We had some good news in August when the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus announced its endorsement. The legislation, as of this printing, has 257 cosponsors in the House, 50 of whom are Members of the Problem Solvers Caucus. Our critical number is 290 cosponsors. If you have friends or family in other states, please reach out to them to ask their Representatives to sign on to the bill as cosponsors. It’s such an easy thing to do! In the Senate, this bill (S-663) is also gaining support. Both New York Senators, Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, will support this bill when it comes to a vote on the Senate floor.

We won’t stop until this bill is passed because it’s the right thing to do. We are a nonpartisan group and welcome anyone, regardless of political party affiliation, to join us. We need everyone at the table.

Read more about this important legislation by visiting our website at bccr.org/mbc-act

*The Breast Cancer Coalition is an independent, local organization unaffiliated with any national group, including the National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC). Many of our goals are the same; thus, we support NBCC’s public policy agenda.

This article appeared in the Coalition’s Autumn 2024 newsletter, “Voices of the Ribbon.“