Hillary Clinton
NBCC sent a letter to each Presidential candidate requesting a video response telling us what he or she would do as President to eradicate breast cancer. We also asked for a written response to NBCC's core issues. Below is Hillary Clinton's response.
Thank you for contacting me as the National Breast Cancer Coalition launches its Breast Cancer Caucus and for allowing me to share my views on how we can work together to raise awareness; identify breast cancer early on; provide more effective treatment; and ultimately eradicate this dreaded disease.
As First Lady, I worked to make breast cancer a national priority. I met with breast cancer advocates to develop the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer. I helped launch a Medicare Mammography Campaign, and I taped public service announcements encouraging older women to make use of this essential diagnostic tool. And I am proud of the progress we made in increasing the number of women who obtain mammograms.
But tragically, breast cancer remains the second leading cause of death among women. This year alone, more than 240,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and nearly 400,000 women will die. Millions more will be impacted as family members and friends of women who are battling breast cancer. I lost my mother-in-law to breast cancer, which only deepened my commitment to this cause.
Per your request, below are my positions on the National Breast Cancer Coalition's four key legislative and public policy priorities.
Guaranteed access to quality health care for all
Twenty one million five hundred thousand women lack health insurance, which puts them at greater risk of not receiving the medical care they need, including screenings that are important in detecting early and treating illnesses like breast cancer. Under the American Health Choices Plan, all women will have health insurance regardless of employment or marital status.
I have enclosed a full description of my health care plan, the American Health Choices Plan, which will provide affordable, high quality health care for every American. Under my plan, every American will be covered with no overall increase in health care spending or taxes. Those who are satisfied with their current health care will be able to keep it. Nothing will change except that they will benefit from the quality improvements and cost savings initiatives that we will undertake as well as the efficiencies we will gain from bringing everyone into the system. Those who do not have health care today will be able to receive the same health care Members of Congress receive or enter a new public plan like Medicare.
Under my plan, insurance companies will no longer be able to discriminate against people on the basis of pre-existing or genetic conditions or age, gender, occupation or other risk factors. And insurance companies will have to renew plans for enrollees who have paid their premiums on time and want to remain enrolled. My plan also provides an income-contingent tax credit to individuals to ensure that they can afford high quality care as well as a tax credit to small businesses to enable them to better afford to make health insurance available to their employees.
The American Health Choices Plan will make prevention and wellness top priorities in the U.S. health care system. All plans in the new Health Choices Menu will have to meet high quality standards that experts deem proven and effective, including preventive care, such as regular physician visits, and screenings, like mammograms. And I will eliminate Medicare co-pays for mammograms, which discourage women from obtaining these important screenings.
I strongly encourage you to read the full description of my plan. A hard copy is enclosed, and an electronic copy is available to be downloaded at: hillaryclinton.com
$150 million for the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program
I strongly support full funding for the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program. This program provides innovative, high-impact, cutting-edge research aimed at eradicating breast cancer.
I have committed to doubling the budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and to ensure that every American lives within the service area of a NCI Cancer Center.
As part of my plan to provide high quality health care for all Americans, I will create a new Best Practices Institute - which would work as a partnership between the existing Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the private sector - to fund medical research and disseminate that information to Americans and health care professional to increase quality and reduce costs.
I have enclosed my plan fight cancer, and would also encourage you to view it electronically at: hillaryclinton.com
Enactment of the Breast Cancer Environmental Research Act (S. 579/H.R. 1157)
I have been an original co-sponsor of the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act every Congress since I came to the Senate because I believe this legislation is essential to building the NIH-funded research centers that will investigate the crucial links between environmental pollutants and breast cancer. Every year we learn more about the connections between the environment and disease, and by pushing forward on this front, I believe we will ultimately be able to predict much earlier who will acquire breast cancer and to eliminate the pollutants that increase the risk for women who are exposed. This legislation will also allow us to develop and implement a much-needed comprehensive strategy for breast cancer research.
I have also introduced the Coordinated Environmental Health Network Act to expand the Centers for Disease Control biomonitoring work, establish a nationwide tracking network to help identify connections between all diseases and environment and develop a response system for addressing public health threats. Only by establishing a comprehensive tracking network we will be able to unlock the mystery behind unexplained clusters of chronic disease, like the high rates of breast cancer on Long Island and similar examples in communities across the country.
I was proud to have established a health tracking system for those who were exposed to the dust and other particles after 9/11 in New York City, and I have long been a strong advocate for untying the relationship between human health and the environment. I will take this strong commitment with me to the White House.
Preservation of the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program
As President, I will fully fund the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program, which authorizes enhanced matching funds to states to provide medical assistance through Medicaid to uninsured or underinsured women screed and diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program.
This vital program, which I was proud to help develop when I was First Lady, will help end the persistent disparities in health outcomes between women who have access to health care and those who do not by allowing more women to be screened for breast cancer and ensuring that those who are diagnosed with the disease have access to the care they need.
Uninsured adult women are significantly less likely than those with private insurance to receive screenings - like mammograms, clinical breast exams and pap smears - that increase the chance of catching diseases early and decreasing mortality rates. African American and Hispanic women are at particularly high risk of not receives these screenings. The Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program helps address these persistent racial and ethnical disparities, and I look forward to expanding access to this program when I am President.
I am proud of all of the progress that has been made in breast cancer research but there is much more that needs to be done until breast cancer is eradicated. For decades I have worked hard to realize that goal and I will continue to do so as president. Thank you for the important work you do on this issue every day.