Legislative Update on the Metastatic Access to Care Act and How You Can Help in 5 Minutes or Less

Guest blog post by: Alisa Shorago, J.D., IBC Patient Advocate and Survivor

What: The Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act is currently stuck in committees – in fact, the House of Representatives sent its version there over a year ago. Last time, the bill made it to the House and Senate committees but died there. This year, we need all hands on deck to get this bill out to a vote and passed.

Why: This law is especially relevant to IBC patients and survivors, given the unfortunate reality that so many IBC patients are Stage IV (or, if not, facing the possibility of Stage IV in the future).

Right now, people who qualify with a disability under SSRI (which is the disability program that applicants have paid into) are faced with long waiting periods. It is months before they are eligible for payments and then years more to be eligible for health insurance through Medicare. That’s true for IBC patients too; while IBC has been designated as a compassionate allowance by SSRI, that only expedites the disability application for a disability determination but does not affect the waiting periods.

The proposed law eliminates the waiting periods for those diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, just as they are already waived for patients who have been diagnosed with end stage renal failure or ALS.

What you can do in five minutes or less to help: Take these simple steps.

• To find your U.S. Congresspeople (one Representative and two Senators) or to get their phone numbers, check here using the address search bar: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member.
• Call your Congresspeople’s offices. If you only have time for one call, call your Representative’s office.
• Sample message (to save you time – but feel free to modify)
  1. I am calling about the Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act, HR 2048 [if it’s your Representative]/ S.3442 [if your Senators].
  2. I am a breast cancer survivor/Stage IV breast cancer patient. I believe very strongly that patients who have been diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer should not have to wait months for disability payments that they already contributed to and/or years for Medicare eligibility. I’m sure that your many constituents who are Stage IV and who have loved ones who are Stage IV would agree with me.
  3. Please make it an urgent priority to support this bill and make sure it gets out of committee and gets passed this year. Lives depend on it, including [potentially] mine.

Let me know how it goes or if you have questions at alisa.advocate@gmail.com. And look for future updates on this bill and other legislation and public policy.

Many thanks to the National Breast Cancer Coalition for their leadership on this act and for the public policy and lobbying  training they provide at their Advocate Leadership Summit/Lobby Day.