| Dear Donna: Happy New Year and thank you for your advocacy efforts throughout 2005. Together we sent over 150,000 letters to legislators in support of breast cancer programs!
Your participation helped to remind policy makers of the importance of breast cancer issues during a time with limited resources in Washington, D.C.
As we celebrate our accomplishments of 2005, we are thankful that most breast cancer programs fared well. Unfortunately, important breast cancer funding was cut this year. We still have work to do to achieve our mission to eradicate breast cancer, and we must continue to wage the war on this devastating disease.
We need to keep the pressure on our legislators and continue our call for comprehensive funding for breast cancer research, detection, and treatment.
I would like to share with you a brief summary of breast cancer policy issues and the developments we made in 2005. Throughout the year we asked you to take action on particular issues and you will see below that your voices were heard! We are energized to continue our fight against breast cancer on Capitol Hill in 2006.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Diane Balma
Director of Public Policy
The Komen Foundation
Breast Cancer Policy: A Year in Review
Signed, sealed, delivered...Since its launch in 1998, the United States Postal Office has sold more than 650 million Breast Cancer Research Stamps raising more than $42 million for breast cancer research. As National Breast Cancer Awareness Month concluded, a bill was enacted to extend the program for two more years, through the end of 2007.
Learn more about this issue
While funding for hundreds of important programs was slashed, the
National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP)
was funded at $204.5 million, the same amount as last year. Level funding is an accomplishment to be proud of in this time of tight budgets. With your help, we convinced legislators that early detection is just too important...and they listened.
But, there is more work to be done. Currently, the program covers only one in five eligible women. As you well know, when breast cancer is diagnosed early, patients have more treatment options and are more likely to survive the disease. That is why in the year ahead we will continue to need your voice to help us advocate for reauthorization of this life-saving program.
Learn more about this issue
Despite our best efforts, the Department of Defense Medical Research Program which includes funding for breast cancer sustained a devastating cut. At the eleventh hour, the program was reduced by $35 million or nearly 25% from Fiscal Year 2005. This reminds us that, even with broad support for the fight, in these fiscally lean times we need to continue speaking out and advocating for breast cancer programs. Learn more about this issue
The Patient Navigator Act, bipartisan legislation to assist patients with navigating the increasingly complex health care system was passed in early 2005. This is great news for breast cancer patients who face many daunting questions while undergoing screening and treatment. That's where patient navigators come in: handholding patients and helping them to overcome barriers within the health care system.
Learn more about this issue
Oncology nurses play a vital role in delivering quality care to cancer patients, but the shortage of qualified nurses is dire. Thanks to the thousands of letters you sent to Congress, funding for
Nurse Reinvestment Act programs was increased by $530,000 to $151.2 million and these funds will help to educate and train nurses to meet the increasing need for their services.
Learn more about this issue
While the overall breast cancer mortality rate has steadily declined over the past decade, the mortality rate for minority women has not declined at the same pace. That is why we wrote letters to Congress asking them to help advance health disparities research by supporting the
National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Thanks in part to your efforts, this funding level was increased by $1.2 million!
Learn more about this issue |
