Below are NBCC’s 2009 Legislative and Public Policy Priorities.
We are in the process of developing background and possible regulatory and legislative approaches to our public policy priorities.

Legislative Priorities

Guaranteed access to quality health care for all. We will not achieve our mission of eradicating breast cancer until everyone has guaranteed access to quality health care. NBCC’s Board of Directors adopted a Framework for a Health Care System Guaranteeing Access to Quality Health Care for All in 2007, after extensive analysis and deliberation. This Framework builds on NBCC’s longstanding principles and core values for quality health care. NBCC will use this framework to educate and mobilize grassroots advocates to demand political leadership and action towards comprehensive health care reform.

$150 million for FY10 for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. As a result of NBCC’s advocacy and strong bipartisan leadership on Capitol Hill, more than $2 billion has been invested in this competitive peer-reviewed research Program. This innovative Program has changed the world of breast cancer research. The inclusion of consumers in every aspect of decision-making and the Program’s unique grant opportunities have led to groundbreaking scientific advances.

Public Policy Priorities

Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act. The strategies outlined in the NBCC supported Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act (BCERA) would result in an overarching plan to look at the links between the environment and breast cancer and a new model of resource allocation at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NBCC is looking at various strategies to achieve the intent of BCERA.

Quality Breast Cancer Care. While we advocate for guaranteed access through a framework for a system governing coverage for health care, we must also push for quality care. One step toward quality is determining how to measure whether the public is getting the right care for breast cancer. NBCC is working on quality measures that will become the basis of our campaign for regulatory and legislative reform in this area.

Preservation of the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program (BCCTP). While NBCC pursues its work on guaranteeing access to quality health care for all, we are committed to making sure women with breast cancer have access to the care they need. The BCCTP provides enhanced matching funds to states to provide full Medicaid coverage to low-income, uninsured women screened and diagnosed with breast and/or cervical cancer through a federal program. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have opted into the program, but efforts to reduce funding for Medicaid or dramatically alter the program threaten the future of the BCCTP. NBCC will work to protect and preserve the BCCTP.

Transparency and Accountability at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Cancer Institute (NCI). NBCC strongly believes that the enterprise of clinical and scientific research at NIH could be vastly improved with greater participation from educated health care consumers and trained advocates who can help to inform all aspects of decision making at NCI and across the Institutes. NBCC also has deep concerns about the lack of transparency, external oversight and accountability in research priority-setting, decision-making and evaluation. What is needed is to determine the right process for and atmosphere within which biomedical research will be prioritized and conducted. We must make certain that the process is inclusive and maximizes our ability to get the right research done in the right way