NBCC: Breast Cancer Caucus

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 Mike Huckabee's response.

On Tuesday, March 5, 2008, Mike Huckabee withdrew his name as a presidential candidate.

1. Guaranteed access to quality health care for all:

All men, women and children must have guaranteed access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay. NBCC is pursuing legislation that meets these principles for access to care.

I support making quality health care accessible to all by making health care more affordable and portable. First, we don't have a health care crisis, we have a health crisis. About 75% of our $2 trillion spent on health annually is spent on chronic disease, most of which could be prevented by not smoking, eating healthier diets, and exercising. In fact, these three lifestyle changes could prevent 40% of cancers, 80% of type-2 diabetes, and 80% of heart disease! So prevention would contain an enormous source of our spiraling health-care costs. People who live healthy lifestyles should be rewarded in their health insurance costs (just as safe drivers get lower rates). Employers should allow exercise breaks during the workday, just as they give people smoking breaks. Employers should allow a total number of days off that can be used for any reason, so that healthy employees aren't punished by getting less time off. Health insurance should cover smoking cessation plans.

Second, early diagnosis and better, more consistent management of chronic disease will also contain costs significantly. Right now, our system is happy to pay $30,000 for a diabetic to have his foot amputated, but won't pay $150 for a podiatrist who could save that foot. So we must change our coverage system to avoid the catastrophic outcomes that the system now encourages. We must waive deductibles and co-pays for screenings (such as mammograms, colonoscopies and PSA tests) that lead to early detection.

Third, we must move from an employer-based system to a consumer-based system, which will make health insurance both more affordable and portable, and thus more accessible. Our current employer-based system doesn't let the free market function because the overwhelming share of the cost is picked up by the employer, while the person actually using the system, the employee, pays only a small fraction of the bill and often doesn't even know what the total cost is. Whenever the person using something and the person paying for it are not the same, whenever something is essentially free, more of it is going to be consumed. With a consumer-based system, you have some skin in the game, some incentives to stay healthy and not take every MRI you possibly can. So moving to a consumer-based system will bring down costs. Also, consumer-based health care will be more accessible because it will be portable - it will belong to you, not your employer, and won't be lost when you change jobs, start your own business, work part-time, or take a break from working outside the home to care for children or an elderly parent.

Fourth, we must move to electronic recordkeeping, which will reduce not just costs, but also the likelihood of mistakes in our treatment.

2. $150 million for the Department of Defense Peer-Reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program:

Launched in 1992 in response to NBCC's campaign for increased federal funding, this unique research program funds innovative grants within a structure that brings scientists and consumers together in making policy decisions at all levels.

I support.

3. Enactment of the Breast Cancer Environmental Research Act (S. 579/H.R. 1157):

This legislation will establish a national strategy to study the role that the environment plays in the development of breast cancer, through competitive peer-reviewed NIH grants.

I support.

4. Preservation of the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program:

NBCC's advocacy resulted in passage of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, which expanded access to treatment for thousands of underserved women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through federal screening programs.

I support.