Vol. 1. No. 2
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August 15, 2011
- Fighting for Brain Tumor Research – Brain tumor advocates tell Congress to make funding a priority during the deficit reduction debate
- NBTS launches new toolkit for advocacy
- NBTS meets with NCI – Our message: We need to see faster progress in moving research to treatment.
- Affordable Care Act – Recent court decision sets up Supreme Court to resolve individual mandate dispute
Fighting for Brain Tumor Research – Brain tumor advocates tell Congress to make funding a priority during the deficit reduction debate
Since the last update, Congress and the President reached an agreement, now signed into law, that raised the debt-limit but called for a new “Supercommittee” in Congress to create a plan to reduce the federal budget deficit, or automatic budget cuts, called sequestration go into effect. As Congress went home for the August recess, hundreds of brain tumor advocates wrote to their Members of Congress to urge them to make funding for the National Institutes of Health a top priority. Our message was clear – Congress should put research funding to find treatments to life-threatening diseases, such as brain tumors, on the do not cut list.
Thank you to everyone who wrote to your Members of Congress already. It’s not too late to take action. Send a quick note to your federal elected officials. When Congress comes back in September they will have to put together a federal budget for fiscal year 2012 and the Supercommittee will get to work. Let’s keep up the pressure.
NBTS launches new toolkit for advocacy
It’s here. It’s easy. It’s also powerful. It’s the National Brain Tumor Society advocacy action toolkit. Visit www.braintumor.org/advocacy and you’ll see our latest action alert and the advocacy toolkit that provides helpful tips and guidance for communicating with elected officials via email, phone, and in-person. Please let us know what you think of it so we can continue to update it.
NBTS meets with NCI – Our message: we need to see faster progress
In early August, the National Brain Tumor Society leadership met with brain tumor research program directors at the National Cancer Institute. We delivered a singular message: faster progress must be made in moving from research to new treatments for brain tumors. On a positive note, NCI shared that they are making needed reforms to their clinical trials process and they are going to carry out genetic sequencing of low-grade gliomas in addition to more research on glioblastoma multiforme through The Cancer Genome Atlas project. NBTS challenged NCI to more quickly integrate systems biology (a form of research that brings together genomic, molecular, and bio-informatics tools to understand tumor diversity and their microenvironment) into the clinical trials process. We will continue to partner with and advocate to the National Cancer Institute.
Affordable Care Act – Recent Appeals Court decision sets up Supreme Court to resolve individual mandate issue
The most controversial issue in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care reform law) is the individual mandate – the requirement of individuals to purchase health insurance. The policy basis for the individual mandate is to ensure that most, if not all, Americans have health insurance by creating incentives to purchase it, if it is not already paid for by the employer. The legal basis for this requirement is being disputed in the courts. The issue is whether the requirement is allowed by the commerce clause of the Constitution. The recent decision by the 11th Circuit of the Federal Court of Appeals that the individual mandate is unconstitutional sets up the Supreme Court to resolve the issue sometime next year as the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it constitutional several months ago. At issue for brain tumor patients, like all patients, is whether the law will ultimately serve to make health insurance accessible and affordable to all those who do not have employer paid-health insurance and are not eligible for Medicaid or Medicare. We will closely monitor this dispute and keep you apprised.
Thank you again for all your support.
