Positions & Policies

National Breast Cancer Coalition 2023 Legislative and Public Policy Priorities

The National Breast Cancer Coalition’s (NBCC’s) legislative and public policy priorities serve as the foundation of our legislative and regulatory advocacy work throughout the year. Each year, the grassroots NBCC board of directors, with input from our members, sets our public policy and legislative priorities for the coming year with the following process: Issues are brought to the attention of NBCC; staff researches the issue and prepares background information for officers, staff and the board; and the board discusses all suggested priorities at the board meeting, then votes on which issues to adopt and the order of their priority. NBCC focuses its work on issues that will have a major impact on breast cancer and those that are broad in scope rather than narrow issues.

Legislative Priorities

Priority #1:

$150 Million/Level Funding for the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) for FY2024: As a result of NBCC’s grassroots advocacy, the DOD BCRP was created in 1992 to end breast cancer for Service Members, Veterans, and the general public by funding innovative, high-impact research through a partnership of scientists and consumers. The DOD BCRP is widely viewed as an innovative, unique, and efficient medical research model which has proven to be accountable to the public and has produced extraordinary results. NBCC seeks continued level funding.

Priority #2:

Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act: This legislation would waive the 24-month waiting period for Medicare and the five-month waiting period for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits for eligible individuals with Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Priority #3:

Preservation of the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program: Congress enacted the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act in 2000 after years of NBCC grassroots lobbying and influence. NBCC remains committed to ensuring all women and men screened and diagnosed with breast cancer have access to the treatment they need.

Public Policy Priorities

Priority #1:

Guaranteed Access to Quality Care for All: Ensuring access to quality evidence-based health care has been a top priority of NBCC for many years. NBCC supports healthcare access initiatives that expand access to Medicare while offering a private insurance option, automatically enrolling individuals who do not have access to other coverage and providing guaranteed benefits, including primary and preventive care, hospital services, and prescription drug coverage. NBCC believes that there must be shared financial responsibility and that no individual should be denied coverage due to an inability to pay.

Priority #2:

Access to Affordable and Effective Therapies: NBCC supports policies that address systemic deficiencies in the law, regulation, and science policy that result in the approval of drugs that do not significantly extend or save lives and whose prices are not based on value or effectiveness.

Priority #3: 

Food & Drug Administration Reform: NBCC supports a drug approval system that prioritizes approving drugs with clinically meaningful benefits for patients. NBCC seeks to address systemic deficiencies in FDA regulation and the drug development process, including reforms to the accelerated approval pathway and the use of unvalidated surrogate endpoints.

Priority #4: 

Ensure the Participation of Educated Patient Advocates in Science Research and All Levels of Health Care Decision Making: NBCC continues to work to ensure that educated patient advocates who are trained and represent a constituency have a meaningful seat at the table in all levels of health care decision-making, which affects their lives.

Patient Advocates must:

  • Have a patient-led, patient-centered organization with a patient constituency to which they are responsible and accountable;
  • Have been personally affected by the disease; and
  • Be knowledgeable, trained, prepared, and confident in their ability to participate in the decision-making process of science and medicine.

NBCC has gathered the latest scientific evidence on a range of breast cancer topics that impact the care and treatment of women with or at risk of the disease. We have analyzed this information from the perspective of consumer advocates. Read more about the evidence we used and to see the scientific references.

Breast Cancer Information and Positions

Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk
It has been hypothesized that surgical (induced) and spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) increase breast cancer risk. However, the highest quality studies show that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer risk. Read more.

Access to Investigational Interventions Outside of Clinical Trials
Access to investigational drugs outside of clinical trials must be carefully designed to be fair and to protect the research process that we depend on to bring us closer to eradicating breast cancer. Read more.

Breast Cancer Advocate Involvement in the Research Process 
Breast cancer advocates who are trained, educated and represent a patient constituency must be meaningfully involved in all aspects of decision-making that affect breast cancer research. This is the only way to ensure that funds are effectively spent and adequately address the causes and prevention of breast cancer, develop optimal treatments and cures for breast cancer, and focus on the best possible means to end the disease. Read more.

Breast Cancer Facts and Figures
In 2022, there will be an estimated 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer diagnosed in women; 2,710 cases diagnosed in men and an additional 51,400 cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) diagnosis in women. (ACS, 2022). Read more.

Breast Self-Exam (BSE)
The evidence does not support efforts to promote and teach BSE on a population-wide level in any age group of women. If a woman wishes to be taught BSE, she should be informed of the potential risks and benefits. Read more.

Chemoprevention
Women need more information on the potential risks and benefits of taking tamoxifen, raloxifene and aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer risk reduction. There is no current evidence that these drugs prevent breast cancer; some studies suggest that they may reduce the chance that a woman will get breast cancer during a certain period of time. NBCC urges physicians to prescribe chemoprevention drugs cautiously and responsibly. Read more.

Clinical Trials Diversity 
NBCC’s Statement on Clinical Trials Diversity lays out a set of principles to ensure diversity and generalizability of trial results to individuals representative of the disease being studied. Read more.

Core Values for Breast Cancer Research
NBCC believes it is critical that research be designed and implemented to effect significant change in how breast cancer is understood, prevented, and treated. There are eight core values for breast cancer research that facilitate progress and improvement for individuals with or at risk for breast cancer. These core values are: integrity, impact, accountability, respect, beneficence, justice, shared decision-making, and flexibility. These values must serve as guiding principles for any breast cancer effort. Read more.

Genetic Testing for Inherited Predisposition to Breast Cancer
Few benefits, many limitations: A genetic test for breast cancer should only be utilized with full consideration of its limitations and implications. Genetic testing cannot cure or prevent breast cancer, and it cannot accurately predict whether an individual woman will or will not develop breast cancer. Read more.

Mammography for Breast Cancer Screening: Harm/Benefit Analysis
Screening mammography of all women has demonstrated only a modest, if any, benefit in reducing breast cancer mortality and is associated with harms that may outweigh those benefits. Read more.