tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64928870721110295692024-03-12T17:02:27.538-07:00ACS CAN Government Relations NotebookHere is my blog on what I've been doing at the Capitol and beyond. Feel free to reach out at andrew.schepers@cancer.org if you have any questions or comments! Thanks for following my adventures!!Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-63831737307826104752017-08-10T10:37:00.000-07:002017-08-10T10:37:22.481-07:00Notebook Page 27 Summer UpdateThe Legislature is finally home for the summer leaving the Michigan ACS CAN team preparing for their return in September. Activities this summer have focused on access to oral chemotherapy, but we did take a moment to celebrate some big wins in the access to healthy food space.<br />
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In June the Legislature finished its budget work. ACS CAN along with other partners were working on three issues that were in the Health and Human Services and the K-12 School Aid budget. This year’s budget included additional funding for farmer's markets. The new funding changes Michigan's contract to allow wireless credit card devices to accept SNAP payments and funding to purchase those wireless devices. The contract only included the use of wired devices making the cost of wireless devices an obstacle for farmer’s markets to take SNAP benefits. Many farmers don’t have the means to purchase expensive wireless devices; this funding will help remove that obstacle.<br />
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Additional funding for the 10 Cents a Meal program will be including in this year’s budget. The 10 Cents a Meal program is currently in northern Michigan and is providing schools 10 extra cents per child per meal to purchase fresh produce from local growers. The program only had funding for 16 schools to participate out of the 52 schools that applied. Local farmers have the fresh fruits and vegetables that students need but are challenged to get it into the school systems. These additional funds will be used to continue and expand the pilot program into Washtenaw County to help schools get these fresh fruits and vegetables while helping local growers in the process. </div>
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We were not able to secure funds for our corner store initiative. This initiative would have provided a one-time grant to corner stores and convenience stores to put in equipment that would make it easier to sell fresh fruits and vegetables in their stores. These stores would be focused on areas in the state that do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and these stores are the only place that people</div>
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can get groceries. It is our plan to obtain this funding in the coming month.<br />
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We are now shifting our focus to oral chemotherapy fairness. Senator Goeff Hansen, our sponsor last year, submitted another bill for this session. His oral chemotherapy legislation is Senate Bill 492, which in its current form we do not support. This time around there is an opt out section in the legislation that would allow health plans to opt out of providing coverage raises their premiums by 1%. The last session when we offered this type of amendment it was in a way that used true data from the health insurers, this time around it allows the insurance companies to forecast their potential impact of providing parity and if their forecast says it would raise premiums by 1% then they could opt out. Since the numbers will be fictional we are opposed to using any data that is not gathered from experience.<br />
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All of these developments, we put into place a postcard program that allows those wanted to share their support for oral chemotherapy fairness to send it to their representative or senator voicing their support. This is to show that efforts need to be taken to provide fairness and they need to be done in the right way. If you are interested in obtaining some postcards please contact Matt at <a href="mailto:matt.phelan@cancer.org" target="_blank">matt.phelan@cancer.org. </a><br />
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<strong>Senate Fails to Replace Health Care Law</strong><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><br />
In the early morning hours of July 28, the U.S. Senate fell short of the votes needed to pass legislation that would have repealed parts of the current health care law. Had the legislation passed, it would have likely resulted in millions losing health insurance and patients paying more for less coverage.<br />
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The Senate vote came nearly three months after the House approved the American Health Care Act (AHCA) – legislation that would have replaced the current health care law.<br />
Our grassroots engagement and media advocacy efforts were extraordinary and played a remarkable role in shaping the public debate. Our opposition was noted the time and again in the media and by legislators. We elevated the patient voice through volunteer mobilization, media advocacy, social media campaigns, direct lobbying and coalition work, targeting House and Senate members from 15 key states. Our <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3Dn5gub4pV7hkcER-X0eER_w&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=S9iXgOhxNimEWl3NYZy8gfkmpfd8NhQDUhj5BNGKXRo%3D&reserved=0">“Keep Us Covered” Campaign</a> placed the voice of cancer patients, survivors and their families front and center in the debate.<br />
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ACS CAN patient volunteers from 14 of the 15 target states traveled to Washington, DC in late June to make lawmakers aware of the opposition by patient communities to the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). The ACS CAN-led patient fly-in was held in coordination with 12 other organizations including the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, Consumers Union and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The groups collectively flew in over 60 patients from all 15 target states. Senators from the target states were expected to play a major role in deciding if the bill moved forward. The patients participated in an ACS CAN-led training, and over 100 advocates, including patients and staff from participating organizations, were in attendance. In meetings with lawmakers, <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DTtEMRWFsWUkB4f4PIHj1fA&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=jST6XGYQ6L0p%2FsRnEleyVBYM83CkG7i381zBGe3qz7g%3D&reserved=0">patient stories</a> were particularly effective at providing the cancer perspective and illustrating how insurance market reforms in the current law provide greater access to preventative screenings and quality comprehensive health insurance coverage.<br />
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Prior to scheduled calls between a select group of governors and Senate leadership, ACS CAN sent <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DoZfXpytXYLwOtPXP9ZkiFw&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=MK%2F8ebmEvBl6iNwQBrzmer0wezbhdchDGkiWwSIMDCM%3D&reserved=0">a letter</a> to governors of both parties across the country detailing our concerns about proposals that would result in dramatically reducing Medicaid funding; reintroducing discrimination based on health history; waiving minimum essential benefits requirements; eliminating steady funding streams that subsidize affordable health insurance coverage; and instituting continuous coverage requirements that could discriminate against those who cannot work due to illness or who have to take leave to care for a loved one.<br />
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ACS CAN has regularly noted that the current law has weaknesses and needs improvement. During the House and Senate debate, we tried to work with lawmakers to identify ways to make the law work better for cancer patients – as did the American Medical Association, other patient groups, hospitals, and insurers.<br />
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ACS CAN’s goal from the beginning has been to urge lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to fix the portions of the current law that are not functioning properly so that it is strengthened and improved in ways that reduce the national cancer burden. We have intentionally positioned ourselves as a resource to help federal legislators do just that. As part of that positioning, our staff and volunteers executed a deliberate campaign to educate lawmakers on the adverse impact certain aspects of the proposed legislation would have had on those with a history of cancer or those that are at risk.<br />
A few metrics:<br />
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">128,000 total petition signatures, action pledges and messages sent to Congress</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nearly 20,000 new volunteers have joined ACS CAN through the campaign</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">#KeepUsCovered hashtag used over 16,000 times and reached 42 million people on social media</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">More than 30,000 calls in to Capitol Hill offices since February</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">More than 720 national and regional clips (with numerous placements in 15 target states) since January 1, including <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3D5ZatlBvtOCYm0UdNjmrbKA&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=aKUlXvv7675uM9ix1t1irWe0nvjaJ9DbJFUGAe9zFPw%3D&reserved=0">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DTDT9-aC1H1Tit9rrG1K2Lg&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=HSZoPSEv5LFqoHQwlg2nxdz%2FAmdB5n4Zd8s9O%2Bz2pQc%3D&reserved=0">USA Today, </a><a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3D_Eu_uLRkxGDDdH-6GCH0Iw&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=Sel8RHhpUy53CQpFEcR5V54nZnaX0Yc0t7sq%2BQwMv24%3D&reserved=0">Bloomberg News</a>, <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DXWfl1d4QueG2IZkNmAruNg&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=FkN7FgYtgw9Qe5%2B%2BJd0dB9oYHEB5ANBPci29GSnGaYM%3D&reserved=0">NPR</a>, the <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DtyPRFX1BxIHNhg-4phGWuw&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=h%2Fk1kfwwqBXOXY%2B2Ir0%2BD8qaO5FceN%2FwJyMtJxFCtEw%3D&reserved=0">Los Angeles Times and cable news networks like MSNBC</a></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A national and regional <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DDHjf5cA920gZIa0T9IPLxw&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=sX3wttQ6MiPCZLh93zmym05iWmvu%2FVNiKrFJFCDN0%2Bk%3D&reserved=0">advertising campaign</a> that was highlighted in <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DXGwt29dUfQKgCrfWkuIdTw&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=iA0l%2BGKGqc66qDCsKNaVsv%2BsTJ0e7TXvLzSB4c0bzPg%3D&reserved=0">The New York Times</a> </span></li>
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ACS CAN continues to call on lawmakers to work together and we stand ready to assist Congress in developing practical, bipartisan solutions that ensure any future health care proposal meets the needs of cancer patients, survivors, and their families.<span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><br />
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<strong>Federal Research Funding Cuts Proposed</strong><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><br />
<a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DltP2YwzBiFm0E2S9uf_fUA&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=vfiqpYjo95gm2hgmkG5sYSiYOX2bW8RbFXgy9ab%2FtA8%3D&reserved=0">The President’s budget</a>, released March 16, proposed funding changes for the remainder of the current fiscal year (FY17) and funding levels for next year (FY18). The federal government is the nation’s largest single funder of cancer research and prevention. The budget submitted to Congress would:<br />
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cut funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $1.2 billion (FY17);</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">scale back programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including funding for state cancer registries and tobacco control, by $65 million this year (FY17);</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">reduce funding to the NIH by an additional $7.2 billion next year (FY18), including an estimated $1.2 billion cut to the National Cancer Institute (NCI); and</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">cut CDC funding for cancer prevention and other chronic disease programs and consolidate the programs into block grants for states (FY18).</span></li>
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The proposed cut to the NIH budget for next year would constitute the largest reduction in medical research funding in history. If enacted, these cuts would also wipe out funding for the Cancer Moonshot initiative approved by Congress late last year with the strong bipartisan support and the enabled funding in the 21st Century Cures Act. It would, in effect, set the NIH back nearly 20 years and prove disastrous. <span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><br />
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<strong>House Slashes Funding for CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health </strong><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><br />
On July 19, the House Appropriations Committee passed its fiscal year 2018 funding bill which includes the CDC. The bill slashed funding for Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) by nearly 25 percent from $205 million to $155 million. This cut would significantly undercut the OSH efforts to prevent kids from using tobacco products and help smokers quit.<br />
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One program that is funded by OSH and would likely end, is the highly visible and tremendously successful effort called Tips from Former Smokers campaign, the first ever paid national tobacco public education campaign. It was launched in 2012 with paid advertisements of real smokers telling their stories of the consequences they have experienced because of smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke. The TV, print, radio, and internet ads focused on cancer, heart disease, stroke, preterm birth, and diabetes, among other health effects of smoking. In the first three years, the campaign has helped 5 million smokers make a quit attempt, 300,000 smokers quit for good, and saved at least 50,000 lives.<br />
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ACS CAN will be working to ensure that when the Senate considers its version of the bill this fall, it does not significantly cut OSH.<br />
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<strong>Congress Works to Undercut FDA Authority over Certain Tobacco Products </strong><br />
On July 13, the House Appropriations Committee passed a bill which would fund the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for fiscal year 2018. Two of the bill’s provisions would significantly undercut FDA oversight of e-cigarettes and many cigars currently on the market and completely exempt some cigars from FDA oversight authority.<br />
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One week later, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the bill which leaves the FDA’s tobacco products oversight authority intact. ACS CAN continues work to ensure that the Senate committee version of the FDA funding prevails in the negotiation of a final bill.<br />
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<strong>FDA Delays Implementation of Final Guidance on Tobacco Deeming</strong><br />
Congress granted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco products in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009. Using this authority in 2016, FDA regulated cigars and e-cigarettes in the “deeming rule,” which prompted numerous lawsuits. The previous administration defended the rule in the first lawsuit, but the current administration asked for time extensions in two related cases so that it could review its position.<br />
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In May, FDA announced it will defer enforcement of all future compliance deadlines for all deeming rule products for three months.<br />
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ACS CAN and other public health groups filed an <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3Dm9u6McVDJ-1CUENvOZozDg&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=sJQg3i2ytcyKqOBRpnDdSMbD9aEQtSFgduto9VLZcnc%3D&reserved=0">amicus brief</a> in the first case, Nicopure Labs v. FDA. On July 25, a federal court upheld the deeming rule in its entirety.<br />
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However, concerned that the government may decide not to defend the rule in other pending cases, <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DMTU_iku--C4-7DHck7KYRA&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949145461&sdata=e6sr0L5kNAjDJ2OXTZS5GxvleGFWkHVzIiUaNlPxF3s%3D&reserved=0">ACS CAN and public health partners</a> petitioned the courts on July 24 seeking intervenor status in the two related lawsuits. If intervenor status is granted, the public health groups become parties to the cases and participate in all phases of the litigation.<br />
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<strong>ACS CAN Responds to Nutrition Labeling Delays</strong><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><br />
Despite becoming law in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act, the FDA has yet to implement the law requiring menu labeling of calories for restaurants and other food service establishments. The regulations to implement the law were set to go into effect in early May but the administration delayed the implementation until May 7, 2018, and opened the implementing regulation to potential modification at the behest of supermarkets, convenience store associations and the pizza industry. ACS CAN <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DVBLn9P_CMjXN_ZrbLs09RQ&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C1b4edd1683a04e2df0d208d4df2d3da0%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636378832949155470&sdata=bdZX%2ByVMxyCfD5eZXX7FNXJFazzBlnKmHwpS%2BfchFpA%3D&reserved=0">submitted comments</a> on the regulation, opposing the delay in implementation and any changes to the menu labeling requirements to make the information less useful in informing healthy choices.<br />
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Meanwhile, on July 27 the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act of 2017, which would make changes to the menu labeling requirements that could make it more difficult for consumers to access and use calorie information in their food and beverage purchase decisions. The bill now awaits consideration on the floor of the House of Representatives. A companion bill is in the Senate.<br />
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ACS CAN will continue to work to secure implementation of the current law and in opposition to passage of the House and Senate bills which would undercut the current law and the availability of calorie information which would be beneficial to consumers.</div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-1141764780090377732017-06-08T11:26:00.000-07:002017-06-08T11:26:52.119-07:00Notebook Page 26 May/June 2017Michigan is starting to wind down its budget work for the year with the federal government starting to talk about the budget, research funding, and others. Here's a breakdown of activity on both fronts for May and June.<br />
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<b>Federal Update</b></div>
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<b>American Health Care Act</b></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">On May 4, following months of negotiation between U.S. House leaders and the President, the U.S. House approved the American Health Care Act (AHCA) that would partially repeal and replace the current health care law.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The impact of the AHCA bill has been widely understood since the</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued its updated assessment of the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA) – estimating the number of Americans who would likely lose health insurance as compared to current law, as well as the possible cost changes for those who maintain coverage.</span><br />
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The CBO projects that under the House-approved legislation the number of uninsured will increase by <u>14 million next year</u>, 19 million in 2020 and, 23 million by 2026. Low and moderate income seniors between the ages of 50-65 will experience significant premium increases due to changes in age rating. Millions of lower-income Americans will be stripped of their Medicaid coverage.</div>
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Additionally, we do know that this legislation would allow states to opt out of insurance market rules in the current law that protect patients with pre-existing conditions from higher costs, and would allow insurers to offer plans that may not provide coverage for cancer screenings and treatments. These requirements, which are in the current law, will become optional in certain states if the AHCA were to become law.</div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Essentially the AHCA would allow states to make these changes if they create a special high-risk pool to segment high-risk patients, such as those who have cancer, out of the private market insurance pool. The idea is to lower premiums for healthy people while placing sicker patients in the high-risk pool. The problem with such a solution, as we have pointed out numerous times to our elected representatives, is that high-risk pools were a failure when they were used prior to passage of the current law because they were never adequately funded. And despite the assertions of AHCA’s supporters, high-risk pools are not adequately supported in this bill. Very few states provided the sustained level of funding needed to serve patients with pre-existing conditions prior to the current law, and most imposing waiting periods, benefits caps, higher premiums and other restrictions designed to keep patients out of the insurance market.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">ACS CAN opposed the AHCA and urged House members to vote “no” on behalf of the cancer community. Provisions contained in the bill that led the CBO to conclude that 14 million people would lose coverage next year, including the elimination of the Medicaid expansion, will now be debated in the U.S. Senate, and AHCA is unlikely to survive that experience in its current form. A vote could happen in the U.S. Senate before the end of June.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">ACS CAN have regularly noted that the current law has weaknesses and needs improvement. During the House debate, we have tried to work with lawmakers to identify ways to make the law work better for cancer patients – as have the American Medical Association, other patient groups, hospitals, and insurers. ACS CAN is working closely with members of the Senate and our partners to craft legislation that helps improve the law and guarantees uninterrupted and meaningful health insurance coverage for cancer patients. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Our grassroots engagement and media advocacy efforts were extraordinary and played a remarkable role in shaping the public debate, even now, when our opposition was noted the time and again in the media and by legislators. Patient stories, town halls, public rallies, customized messages on social media, patch-through calls, drop-in visits with members’ offices – each of these efforts amplified the patient’s voice. And our </span><a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Faction.convio.net%2Fsite%2FR%3Fi%3DJQTvxY9jrbZKIUprQC1Ppg&data=02%7C01%7Cmatt.phelan%40cancer.org%7C20591d64bf4c45f7d25e08d497c6121f%7Cafbb768cd68242ad8f7e7202d06c0b61%7C0%7C0%7C636300324547503836&sdata=89XMgLknqykw4XybWc1Uzf86%2BZ6UlgW1nOrvYKSL%2Bo0%3D&reserved=0"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">#KeepUsCovered</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"> campaign logged more than 1.1 million impressions across all of Twitter and Instagram from our national Facebook page.</span><br />
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<b>Cancer Research Funding</b></div>
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On May 23, the President introduced his proposed 2018 budget, which includes deep cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Medicaid. If approved by Congress, the cuts would decrease the NIH budget by 21 percent, decrease the NCI budget by 21 percent, cut the CDC’s chronic disease program by nearly 20 percent and reduce Medicaid funding by more than $600 billion.</div>
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Cutting the NIH budget by $7.1 billion would seriously jeopardize the development of new, potentially life-saving cancer diagnostic tools, prevention methods and treatments. It would also risk eroding the basic scientific research that, when combined with private investment, spurs American medical innovation and economic development. Most specifically, the cuts would completely undermine the increases for research secured in the bipartisan 21<sup>st</sup> Century Cures Act meant to accelerate progress against diseases like cancer.</div>
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A recent <a href="http://bit.ly/2qI6A2H">poll</a> release showed an overwhelming 90 percent of voters believe federal funding for medical research is ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important and 75 percent want Congress to significantly <i>increase</i> NIH funding. More than two-thirds oppose the cuts as proposed in the President’s budget.</div>
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Cancer research is on the verge of significant new breakthroughs that could help save lives from a disease that continues to kill more than 1,650 Americans each day. Just last week, the American Cancer Society released a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.21400/full">report</a> showing one in every five adult cancer diagnoses and two of every three childhood cancer diagnoses are considered rare. These patients and their families depend on the promise and progress of continued research investment to develop new therapies that will help to get and keep their specific diagnoses in check. </div>
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In addition, cutting the CDC chronic disease budget by nearly 20 percent threatens to substantially weaken vital tobacco prevention and cessation programs as well as important efforts to address nutrition, physical activity, and obesity—all significant cancer risk factors.</div>
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The results of these cuts combined with the more than $600 billion reductions in Medicaid funding, could leave millions of Americans without access to meaningful health care and prevention services.</div>
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To date, the federal government has played a critical role in our ability to reduce the cancer burden. Such drastic budget reductions would have the potential to devastate the nation’s standing as the global leader in cutting-edge medical research and scientific discovery, hamper progress in detecting cancer early when it’s least expensive to treat and most survivable and severely restrict low-income patients’ access to critical safety-net health care coverage through Medicaid.</div>
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Moving forward, ACS CAN will continue to urge lawmakers to preserve their bipartisan commitment to research and prevention and reject these cuts when crafting the FY 2018 budget. </div>
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<b>Michigan Update</b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Appropriations</span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Numbers were released last month at the Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference that showed a deficit in Michigan’s state budget. The General Fund Revenues are down by a total of $392.7 million for three years. We are now facing potential budget cuts. To fix this shortfall the House has proposed cutting funds for all prevention programs. They’ve proposed cutting funds in half for the Cancer Prevention Program and Tobacco Prevention program. There’s more support for maintaining funding levels for these critical programs in the State Senate. ACS CAN is working hard to save our funding. Final budget decisions are likely to be made by the end of June.</span></div>
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<b>Healthy Food Access</b></div>
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Another area of appropriations that has been our focus is on Healthy Food Access. </div>
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With the state budget, almost complete it appears we may make some gains in this area. </div>
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This year’s budget will include additional funding for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits which have been allowed to be used at farmer’s markets. Farmers markets are a great location to get fresh foods, but obstacles have persisted for SNAP benefits users. The new funding will allow for wireless devices to accept payments and funding to purchase those wireless devices for SNAP benefits. The use of wired devices and the cost of wireless devices has become an obstacle for farmer’s markets to take SNAP benefits and many farmers don’t have the means to purchase expensive wireless devices. This funding will help remove that obstacle.</div>
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Additional funding for the 10 Cents a Meal program will be including in this year’s budget. The 10 Cents a Meal program in northern Michigan is providing schools 10 extra cents per child per meal to purchase fresh produce from local growers. The program only had funding for 16 schools to participate out of the 52 schools that applied. Local farmers have the fresh fruits and vegetables that students need but are challenged to get it into the school systems. These additional funds will be used to continue and expand the pilot program to help schools get these fresh fruits and vegetables while helping local growers in the process. </div>
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It looks like we will not be able to secure funds for our corner store initiative. This initiative would have provided a one-time grant to corner stores and convenience stores to put in equipment that would make it easier to sell fresh fruits and vegetables in their stores. These stores would be focused on areas in the state that do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and these stores are the only place that people</div>
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can get groceries.</div>
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<b>Tobacco 21</b></div>
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Representative Tommy Brann (R-Walker) and Representative Abdullah Hammoud have introduced a package of bills that would prohibit the sale of tobacco products in Michigan to anyone under the age of 21. Several states have already passed similar legislation.<br />
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Additionally, Genesee County is facing a legal challenge to their local tobacco 21 regulation. The health organizations supporting the regulation believe that Genesee County is well within their legal means to pass and enforce a regulation of this type. The plaintiffs are arguing that state law prohibits a local municipality from passing such a law. ACS CAN will be submitting an amicus curiae brief along with many other health organizations including the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, and Trinity Health Systems to the court to defend the tobacco 21 regulation in Genesee County. <i>Amicus curiae</i> is Latin for "friend of the court," meaning a person or group who is not a party to a lawsuit, but has a strong interest in the matter and seeks permission to submit a brief with the intent of influencing the court's decision.</div>
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<b>Oral Chemotherapy Fairness</b></div>
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Oral chemotherapy fairness legislation will be introduced in the fall. Negotiations between legislators and lobbying groups have delayed introduction. There may be legislation introduced in both the House and the Senate this year. ACS CAN will be focusing on House members and specifically members of the House Insurance Committee. Throughout the summer, ACS CAN volunteers will be attending coffee hours and collecting postcards to send to State Representatives encouraging them to create oral chemotherapy fairness.</div>
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Take Aways:</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Budgets are moving and money for tobacco and cancer prevention programs are at the threat of being cut in half.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Funding for healthy food initiatives have made their way in the budget and could stay.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Tobacco 21 legislation has been introduced in the State House to prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21 throughout Michigan.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>Oral Chemotherapy Fairness legislation is expected to be introduced this fall and our focus will be with members of the Michigan House of Representatives.</div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-62379518066635089912017-04-28T07:59:00.001-07:002017-04-28T07:59:24.288-07:00Notebook Page 25, April 2017<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The legislature continues in its budgetary work with the both chamber Appropriations committees starting to finalize their first round of budgets. The income tax reduction continues to linger on in the House, leaving members on the Appropriations trying to cut back on the budget so that the money will be available for those who want to cut taxes. Let's review major activity in the House and Senate over the past few weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Appropriations committees took their first stabs at putting together a budget for the coming fiscal year. ACS CAN have been active in the appropriations in three major areas this go around. The usual tobacco and cancer prevention funding dollars continues to stay as a top priority for ACS CAN. Funding for the programs has seen a stabilization over the past couple cycles due to a great amount of advocacy work done by those all-around Michigan. This year both chairmen of the Health and Human Services budget indicated that there would be no change in the funding levels for the tobacco and cancer prevention programs in the first go around. We will continue to monitor the situation as the bills move forward in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Our second activity in the budget surrounds healthy food access. There were three<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>asks<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in the budget this year that ACS CAN<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>worked<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>on with coalition partners. The first was providing a one tine grant to corner stores and convenience stores to put in equipment that would make it easier to sell fresh fruits and vegetables in their stores. We know there are areas in the state that do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables and these stores are the only place that people can get groceries. Our hope is with this funding we can grow the access to the needed food.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Farmers markets are a great location to get fresh foods. SNAP benefits in the past few years have been allowed to be used at farmer’s markets. One of the great programs around the SNAP program is one that allows for a doubling up for SNAP dollars for those buying food at farmer’s markets. One of the major hurdles is the way that SNAP benefits are taken. The market needs to have a hard-wired device to accept the payments. Many farmer’s markets don't have that luxury to allow for that so this leaves this option unavailable for those with SNAP. Wireless devices are available but they are costly and currently not required under contract with the SNAP vendor. ACS CAN is advocating for that to change. We are asking the legislature to change the contact to allow for wireless devices and make them available at all farmer’s markets in Michigan that want them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Finally, fresh fruits and vegetables have a hard time making into our children's lunches sometimes. Local farmers have the produce but have hard times making it into the school systems. That all changed with the 10 Cents a Meal program. This is a pilot program in northern Michigan that is providing schools 10 extra cents per child per meal to purchase fresh produces from local growers. ACS CAN<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>supported<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>the proposal last session and saw that 16 schools participated in the program with 52 applying. This year we are asking for a continuation of the pilot to help schools get the fresh fruits and veggies they need and help local growers in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">As you have likely heard in the news, the efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act are continuing. The American Health Care Act (AHCA) is the replacement plan that has been debated. This bill would significantly alter the accessibility, adequacy and affordability of meaningful health insurance for millions of Americans, including those who have coverage through Medicaid. ACS CAN did not support this legislation when it was moving through the process back in March because it would undermine access to affordable, quality coverage, and put patient protections at risk. The bill would significantly reduce the number of Americans able to access and afford quality health insurance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">Unfortunately, the bill has been amended and is now even worse for cancer patients. An amendment has been added that would allow states who set up high-risk pools to waive the Essential Health Benefits, meaning that cancer patients would no longer be guaranteed coverage for chemotherapy, prevention, or hospitalization. While in theory plans would have to accept everyone, insurers could set up plans that don’t cover the services that people with chronic illnesses like cancer need, thus opening the door for backdoor discrimination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;">The amendment would also allow patients with pre-existing conditions to be charged much more for their plans, and could price people out of the market. The bottom line is that it could make plans both worse and more expensive for cancer patients and survivors. Congressional leadership is trying to get the votes to pass this bill. ACS CAN strongly opposes this bill as it is not a replacement that is better than the current system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Take Aways:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Budgets are moving and money for tobacco and cancer prevention programs are safe for the moment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 13.5pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Funding for healthy food initiatives have made their way in the budget and could stay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">That activity has been front and center for us over the past month but I would also look for issues surround tobacco and oral chemotherapy fairness to make their way to the surface in May. If you have any further questions please don't hesitate to reach out to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>myself<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(andrew.schepers@cancer.org) or Matt Phelan<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>(matt.phelan@cancer,org)<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with any questions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-4808775916797196662017-03-31T12:51:00.000-07:002017-03-31T12:51:12.727-07:00Notebook Page 24 March 2017 March came in like a lamb as far as the Michigan legislature is concerned but on the federal level, the roar of the health care lion was heard loud and clear nationwide. House Republicans in Congress said that the time was now to finally repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the American Health Care Act. By the end of March would House Republicans have the ability to move the legislation across the finish line in the House, let's review March.<br />
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State:<br />
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In Michigan, the legislature continued crafting their policy legislation for the coming term. Many new members in the House were just starting to have their first bills introduced on the House floor, while the Senate will moving legislation as if nothing was new in their chamber. The House and Senate concentrated on their respective budgets by continuing and finalizing hearings. Earlier in the year, the House attempted to pass a cut to the state's income tax that would leave a $1.1 Billion hole in the State's budget. Now it appears that the House is looking to start making some of those cuts without cutting the income tax with reductions seen in most budgets that the House has passed already. The Health and Human Services budget hasn't been passed yet by the subcommittee and full appropriations committee as of yet. It is the largest budget in state government so it may take a week to finalize the budgetary numbers.<br />
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On the policy side, there is a large push with the introduction of several bills that would control the availability, accessibility, and the clinical use of opioids. Pain management is a part of palliative care and ensuring that patients have access to quality palliative care continues to be a top priority for ACS CAN. We will be working with the legislature, policy makers, and those groups working to ensure that quality access continues to be at the forefront of the discussion. Our legislation around oral chemotherapy fairness and tobacco taxes should be finished and ready for introduction by the end of April.<br />
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Federal:<br />
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On March 24, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA). This bill would have significantly altered the accessibility, adequacy, and affordability of meaningful health insurance for millions of Americans, including those who have coverage through Medicaid. ACS CAN does not support this legislation because it would undermine access to affordable, quality coverage, and put patient protections at risk.<br />
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The bill would significantly reduce the number of Americans able to access and afford quality health insurance. According to an initial report on the legislation by the Congressional Budget Office, 15 million more Americans would have been uninsured by next year and 52 million Americans would be uninsured by 2026—24 million more than under current law. This includes millions of low-income Americans who, because of significant Medicaid funding cuts, a reduction in the premium tax credit and expanded age-rating, would be priced out of the health insurance market. Many of these same Americans also have higher risk factors for cancer.<br />
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In the end, House Speaker Paul Ryan, his leadership team, and the Administration decided to pull the vote on Repeal & Replace of the Affordable Care Act since they could not secure the necessary votes to pass the legislation. Although the current law is not perfect it is critical for so many as it relates to our cancer mission.<br />
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The President recently introduced a proposed the fiscal year 2018 budget that includes deep cuts to medical research. If approved by Congress, the cuts would represent 19 percent of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) total budget and would likely result in a $1 billion cut to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).<br />
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The proposed reduction in NIH funding of $5.8 billion would represent a significant setback for millions of American cancer patients, survivors, and their families. It would also dramatically constrain the prospect for breakthrough American medical innovation—an essential American economic driver.<br />
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If enacted, the budget proposal would likely result in a nearly $1 billion decrease for cancer research at NCI—making it the largest funding reduction in its history. The cuts would set research funding back to the level it was in 2000 when accounting for inflation.<br />
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In December, Congress passed the 21st Century Cures Act. This bill represented lawmakers' overwhelming bipartisan commitment to the promise and necessity of medical research to our country's future. The legislation included $4.8 billion in new funding for the NIH, including $1.8 billion for the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative. This legislation provided substantial new investment in research and will lead to new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer and other serious diseases. The proposed cuts that have been introduced will erase all of that.<br />
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NIH-funded medical research is conducted in thousands of labs and universities across the country. These grants in turn spawn increased private investment and development. Drastically reducing NIH's budget would jeopardize our nation's potential to save more lives while simultaneously risking America's position as the global leader in medical research.<br />
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Michigan Day at the Capitol:<br />
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ACS CAN advocates were very active around this issue and the hard work showed as key members of Congress backed away from their initial support for the legislation. Our work on the Affordable Care Act is not over and ACS CAN will remain diligent in our efforts to ensure that health care is adequate and affordable for everyone.<br />
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Registration for Michigan’s Day at the Capitol (formerly called Lobby Day) has been open for just about a month now. The Day at the Capitol will be on Wednesday, May 3rd. Registration will close on April 21st. This year, we’ll be holding our event at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Lansing. The agenda for the day will be similar to previous years with some small changes. The URL below will take you to the registration site.<br />
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<a href="http://www.acscan.org/milobbyday%C2%A0" target="_blank">www.acscan.org/milobbyday </a><br />
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Any ACS volunteer is welcome to attend, but please let ACS CAN staff know prior to inviting anyone to ensure we are getting the right volunteers. We are looking for volunteers that are motivated to make a difference in the fight against cancer, are passionate about our mission, and are willing to share their cancer story. Volunteers do not need to be advocacy volunteers or have any experience advocating. Appointments with lawmakers will be scheduled for all volunteers that attend. <br />
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Our Day at the Capitol will focus on three important issues this year:<br />
· The need to increase tobacco taxes to curb youth tobacco use and provide much-needed funding for Michigan’s prevention programs, which have been drastically cut over the past decade, to provide cancer services and tobacco prevention to Michigan residents that need it the most.<br />
· Increase access to cancer drugs through Oral Chemotherapy fairness.<br />
· Create a roadmap for the future of Palliative Care in Michigan<br />
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If you have any questions about Michigan's Day at the Capitol or any other questions, please contact Matt Phelan (matt.phelan@cancer.org) or Andrew Schepers (andrew.schepers@cancer.org)<br />
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Take Aways:<br />
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<li>No changes planned at this point for tobacco and cancer prevention funding levels in the budget.</li>
<li>Legislation to limit the ability to prescribe and use opioids has been introduced and could affect cancer patients and their pain management.</li>
<li>Register for Michigan's Day at the Capitol at www.acscan.org/milobbyday</li>
</ul>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-37363324289363252182017-03-03T07:16:00.002-08:002017-03-31T12:51:31.875-07:00Notebook Page 23 February 2017<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Budgets and taxes continue to dominate the activity of the Michigan
legislature during February. The Governor presented his budget to the
legislation early in the month which provides some positive points for patients
around Michigan. Governor Snyder continued to show support for the Healthy
Michigan Plan, Michigan’s Medicaid expansion. Also included in the budget was a
continuation of the funding for the cancer and tobacco prevention programs. Those
continue to stay at their current funding levels for the coming year. Now the
House and Senate will continue to review the proposal and take testimony from
groups around the state on the different issues included in the budget.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On February, ACS CAN along with AHA and ALA hosted a welcoming
reception for the members of the 99<sup>th</sup> legislature. This provided a
great opportunity to meet some of the new lawmakers and talk to those seasoned
veterans of the legislature on the major issues facing the groups this year. Attendance
for the first time a was a little space, but it isn’t due to the issues of our
three groups but rather taxes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The same night the House decided to take a vote in passing a roll
back of Michigan’s income tax. The current rate is at 4.25% and when that was
raised there was a promise from the legislature that a rollback would happen
over several years to 3.9%. The state still continued to need the money being
generated from the increase so a couple years after the raise, the legislature
went in and made the raise permanent. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
House Republicans this year felt that this was the year that the
state needed to make good on the promise of a rollback and so they pushed
through legislation to do just that. What would a rollback mean, it would create
a hole in the state budget to the tune of $1.1 Billion. This is a major concern
is that with the declining funds major programs that we are supportive of like programs
above would be cut or eliminated. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The members of the House spent over 12 hours in the House chamber
trying to get enough support to have the measure pass, but at the end of the
day, it failed by three votes. Now the House will continue to work the issue
and can ask for the vote to be reconsidered, so this issue isn’t over yet and
we will continue to monitor the activity around this issue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun">Registration for Michigan’s Day at the Capitol
(formerly called Lobby Day) is now open. The Day at the Capitol will be
on Wednesday, May 3<sup><span xml:lang="EN-US">rd</span></sup><span xml:lang="EN-US">. Registration will close on April 21<sup></sup></span><span xml:lang="EN-US">st</span><span xml:lang="EN-US">.</span></span><span class="eop"> </span> <span class="normaltextrun">This year, we’ll be holding
our event at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Lansing. The agenda for the
day will be similar as previous years with some small changes. <span xml:lang="EN-US"></span>The <span class="spellingerror"></span></span><span xml:lang="EN-US">urn<span class="normaltextrun"> below <span xml:lang="EN-US"></span>will take you to
the registration site.<span class="eop"></span></span></span> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://www.acscan.org/milobbyday" target="_blank"><span class="normaltextrun"><span style="color: #0563c1; text-decoration: none;"><span xml:lang="EN-US">www.acscan.org/milobbyday</span></span></span></a><span class="eop"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{d1578749-a788-47a4-89f6-869f3a8349d9}{179}" paraid="682588907" style="vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun">Any ACS volunteer is welcome to attend, but please let
ACS CAN staff know prior to inviting anyone to ensure we are getting the right
volunteers.<span xml:lang="EN-US"></span> W<span xml:lang="EN-US">e are looking for volunteers that </span><span xml:lang="EN-US">are motivated to make a
difference in the fight against cancer, are passionate about our mission, </span><span xml:lang="EN-US">and are willing to share
their cancer story.</span><span xml:lang="EN-US"> Volunteers do not need to be advocacy volunteers or have any
experience advocating. </span><span xml:lang="EN-US">Appointments with lawmakers will be scheduled
for all volunteers that attend.</span><span xml:lang="EN-US"> <span class="eop"></span></span></span> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{bc054972-7eb4-46de-87f6-295eef110fb2}{62}" paraid="1850261340" style="vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="normaltextrun">Our<span xml:lang="EN-US"></span> Day at the
Capitol will focus on three important issues this year:<span class="eop"></span></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{a404dcab-7c98-4724-ba89-dd0da73e39b8}{34}" paraid="847282596" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span xml:lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="normaltextrun">T<span xml:lang="EN-US"></span>he need to
increase tobacco taxes to curb youth tobacco use and provide much needed fu<span xml:lang="EN-US">nding for Michigan’s
prevention programs, which have been drastically cut over the </span><span xml:lang="EN-US">past decade, to provide
cancer services and tobacco prevention to Michigan residents </span><span xml:lang="EN-US">that need it the most.<span class="eop"></span></span></span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{a404dcab-7c98-4724-ba89-dd0da73e39b8}{44}" paraid="263407884" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span xml:lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="normaltextrun">Increase access to cancer drugs through Oral
Chemotherapy fairness.</span></span><span class="eop"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{a404dcab-7c98-4724-ba89-dd0da73e39b8}{46}" paraid="1471437212" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span xml:lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span class="eop"><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span class="normaltextrun">Create a road map for the future of Palliative Care in
Michigan</span></span><span class="eop"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{3c81cb3c-a4bc-4813-9682-bb6b76a51c09}{214}" paraid="923349084" style="vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" style="vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="normaltextrun">If you have any questions about Michigan's Day at the
Capitol, please contact Matt Phelan.</span><span class="eop"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{a404dcab-7c98-4724-ba89-dd0da73e39b8}{24}" paraid="9867647" style="vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{27d43625-6d8c-4bf9-bcde-b8ab28f03dff}{152}" paraid="1105510590" style="vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="normaltextrun">Our ACS CAN ACT Leads and
Ambassadors<span xml:lang="EN-US"></span> are completing “Drop <span class="spellingerror"></span></span><span xml:lang="EN-US">Bys<span class="normaltextrun">” to their
members of congress</span></span><span class="eop"> </span><span class="normaltextrun">with our federal #</span></span><span class="spellingerror">KeepUsCovered</span><span class="normaltextrun">
campaign to address the ongoing debate around the Affordable Care Act.
Volunteers will continue to contact members of Congress to discuss the
issue of adequate and affordable healthcare for all cancer patients and
survivors.</span><span class="eop"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="paragraph" paraeid="{27d43625-6d8c-4bf9-bcde-b8ab28f03dff}{230}" paraid="432279277" style="vertical-align: baseline;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<br /></div>
<div paraeid="{27d43625-6d8c-4bf9-bcde-b8ab28f03dff}{219}" paraid="513100164" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;" xml:lang="EN-US">
<span xml:lang="EN-US">As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate
to contact Matt (<a href="mailto:matt.phelan@cancer.org">matt.phelan@cancer.org</a>) or myself (<a href="mailto:Andrew.schepers@cancer.org">Andrew.schepers@cancer.org</a>) with any of your questions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Take Aways:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Budget
work continues with no impending cuts to tobacco and cancer prevention programs
and shows Healthy Michigan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol";">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->House
fails to pass income tax rollback. This would have drastic impacts on the
state, creating $1.1 Billion hole.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-35399776023150589472017-02-06T07:37:00.000-08:002017-02-06T08:32:31.929-08:00Notebook Page 22 January 2017<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The Michigan legislature is finally back in full swing and the Governor provided his annual state of the state address, providing a report card on how Michigan is doing. The new session means a new year for ACS CAN as well and the start of a new educational process with over 40 new lawmakers in the House of Representatives.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Governor Snyder’s State of the State speech to most pundits didn’t move mountains. The speech really provided a report card on how Michigan is doing. Health wise there were not many mentions of major health initiatives except for the efforts in Flint and Healthy Michigan. At last count, Michigan has over 640,000 people on the Healthy Michigan Plan, which is being touted as one of the models of how Medicaid expansion can work in all states. Over the next several months, while discussions are happening around the Affordable Care Act, Governor Snyder will continue to deliver his message that Healthy Michigan is the right direction for the country.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
ACS CAN will continue to support the Healthy Michigan Plan and educate lawmakers on why it’s important to continue to offer in Michigan. Along with that, we will be educating on our major campaigns for the year. This year ACS CAN <span style="background-color: white;">is </span>working on issues surrounding Palliative Care, Tobacco Taxes, Oral Chemotherapy Fairness, and others.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Our efforts surrounding Palliative Care are built off of the report that ACS CAN and partners from ACS and other health groups from around the state put together that outline some of the major hurdles surrounding Palliative Care. One of the major asks in the report is the creation of a Palliative Care Commission on a state level that will look at the palliative care and provide actionable items to the Legislature to better our palliative care systems. We are working with Governor Snyder to create this commission through executive order rather than make it statutorily. Our goal is to have this ready to go by summer 2017.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Tobacco taxes will again be a major campaign for us this year. Michigan currently falls into the bottom third of the country in terms of tobacco prevention funding. Youth are shifting away from traditional tobacco and moving towards new emerging products and the state continues to face future financial issues in it’s Medicaid program. All of those issues and others leads us to ask for an increase in the cigarette tax by $1.50, create parity for other tobacco products, and regulate and tax e-cigarettes as tobacco products. This will provide substantial ongoing revenue for the state to help fund prevention and Medicaid issues.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Finally, Oral Chemotherapy Fairness is back again. I know all of the hard work that all of you did to help us move this issue over the finish line last time but we fall short due to politics rather than common sense. This time around we is fearful that our sponsor last term will be willing to cave to any of the demands from the health insurers, which could potentially leave us on the other side of the issue fighting against the legislation since it would do harm to patients than good. We will continue to keep engaged throughout the process to work and engaged with your volunteers and accounts to fight to greater access to these needed drugs.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
On January 28 ACS CAN hold their annual Michigan volunteer training at Michigan State University. Volunteers from all over the state attended and learned about ACS CAN’s state and federal priorities for 2017. The top priority at this time is guaranteeing that any replacement for the Affordable Care Act includes the same or better protections for cancer patients.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
ACS CAN will focus on four areas, or what we call our four A’s, for any Affordable Care Act replacement. These are the four areas:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Availability </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .75pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No pre-existing medical condition restrictions </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .75pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Plans are prohibited from rescinding or canceling coverage when someone gets sick except in instances of fraud or misrepresentation</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .75pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Availability and renewability of coverage is guaranteed </span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Affordability</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Plans are only able to charge more or less in premiums based on family structure, geography, the generosity of the benefit, age (limited to a ratio of 3 to 1), and tobacco use (limited to a ratio of 1.5 to 1) </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Plans cannot charge higher premiums because an individual has had a cancer diagnosis</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Plans can charge older Americans no more than 3 times what they charge younger persons. This keeps health insurance more affordable for older Americans</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Refundable tax credits provide premium assistance for individuals and families up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level for coverage in a marketplace plan </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Out-of-pocket spending maximums for individuals and families </span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Adequacy </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">No lifetime and annual coverage limits</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Coverage of preventive health services with no cost sharing</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Requires all plans to provide a minimum level of benefits. Plans offered in the small group and individual markets have additional requirements to provide coverage of 10 categories of essential health benefits.</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Requires plans to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on healthcare and quality improvement</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Administrative Simplicity</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Standardized summary plan documents that make it easier for consumers to compare plans when shopping</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Insurance companies are required to streamline insurance appeals process to provide consumers with information about their appeals and the opportunity for external appeals </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: .15pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Plan navigators and other health insurance enrollment specialists help consumers apply for and understand coverage in the marketplaces and Medicaid </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
As always, if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Matt (<a href="mailto:matt.phelan@cancer.org">matt.phelan@cancer.org</a>) or myself (<a href="mailto:Andrew.schepers@cancer.org">Andrew.schepers@cancer.org</a>) with any of your questions. Thanks again and remember pitchers and catchers start reporting on February 14<sup>th</sup>!</div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-60088611430914336572017-01-05T12:12:00.002-08:002017-01-05T12:12:59.450-08:00Notebook Page 21, December 2016<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Snow and the coming holidays didn't keep the legislature away from finalizing the work of Michigan’s 98th legislature. Two major issues that ACS CAN was working on surrounded access to drugs; regulations for biosimilar drugs and oral chemotherapy fairness. Both issues at the start of December seemed to have some life but would they be able to make it across the finish line.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Earlier in the year House Bill<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/(S(rb3aphizfgpcmngsbvigt2ku))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-HB-4812" target="_blank">4812</a>, the bill that provides the needed regulations for the substitution and dispensing of biosimilar drugs in Michigan took a major turn for the worse in the Senate Health Policy committee just before the summer recess. Groups in favor of the legislation, as it came out of the House, were found scrambling and trying to find ways to amend the legislation back to the version that had passed the House and included the critical language that required notification to physicians of substitution. The Fall brought very little activity around the legislation but rather conversations with Senators about a possible amendment on the Senate floor back to the House version and then passage during the end of the year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Amendments were drafted and a key Senator was named as a champion for the amendment. Lame duck started; the time in the legislature when at segments all right and reason seem to escape people and deals begin to develop to get legislation moving and passed before the end of the session. This legislation was no different and rather than having productive discussions around the legislation the opposite happened. Discussions by groups with Senators about the amendment started a destructive movement against the legislation. Finally, the chairman of the Senate Health Policy committee said enough was enough and the legislation was dead for the year, leaving groups that had worked on the legislation at the doorstep with nowhere to go and lawmakers frustrated over the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">We have documented throughout the year that oral chemotherapy fairness was a key issue for ACS CAN. In May of this past year, the Michigan Senate passed Senate Bill<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://legislature.mi.gov/(S(rb3aphizfgpcmngsbvigt2ku))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-SB-0625" target="_blank">625</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with all but one vote. The legislation had huge bipartisan support in the Senate, which usually sends a message to those working in or with the legislature that it should have the same support in the House. We learned this term that the House and Senate, although controlled by the same party, were the furthest philosophically from each other then they have been in years. Several large key issues made their way from the Senate with worked out compromises, only to have the House completely tear it up and write their own deals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjV-rlxBdF_dyQ9cOLt1nHj0lJGTjPjkQ-wz3Ws_QQcxomx4T5ptBz-IqiCkh-pI02MLaOdd0r_Q5AgBNiDQyrahA94orjDRrpWvB-Igh-0xzbpQXGZ-jQ6i9e8RPF9qAmCjKnZvSE0v8/s1600/OCF+Lobby+Day+4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjV-rlxBdF_dyQ9cOLt1nHj0lJGTjPjkQ-wz3Ws_QQcxomx4T5ptBz-IqiCkh-pI02MLaOdd0r_Q5AgBNiDQyrahA94orjDRrpWvB-Igh-0xzbpQXGZ-jQ6i9e8RPF9qAmCjKnZvSE0v8/s320/OCF+Lobby+Day+4.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Oral fairness was no different. The Senate worked hard with all of the stakeholders to ensure that the legislation that would move was a compromise. Groups like ACS CAN and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) took some concessions but so did groups like Blue Cross / Blue Shield (BC/BS) and the Michigan Association of Health Plans (MAHP) The legislation was finally in a place that it had never been, where the major health plan in Michigan (BC/BS) was not supportive but would not stand in the way of it moving through the legislature and patient groups were in support. Then the wall appeared in the House and MAHP worked with the House leadership to have the legislation sent to a committee that shuttered at the slight notion of anything that is a "mandate". Just the slightest notion of having a prescribed function in the legislation left the committee wanting to know more, slowing down the process considerably.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Summer came and went with ACS CAN volunteers spending time in local coffee shops, on their phones calling into their lawmaker's office, sending quick e-mails to their lawmakers asking for support, and even dusting off stationary and pen sets to send the hand written letters. Lawmakers knew what oral chemotherapy fairness was by the end of the Summer, leaving now just action from the committee. No hearings came and lawmakers came and went, off to finish their campaigns. So ACS CAN ran a campaign of our own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHjT_nOr6TSMRXlIhjtcHAElfpwn_stjAl2MTCgZplUnePhFs8q__9b0ItxE751hyphenhyphencY7-bSBCnWIP1udnX6rcr3_8zlC8DnUVzMhtAVu_PA2kxxM59OmOOQwAOks7ziBYxeWZeLj-wIg9/s1600/OCF+Lobby+Day+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibHjT_nOr6TSMRXlIhjtcHAElfpwn_stjAl2MTCgZplUnePhFs8q__9b0ItxE751hyphenhyphencY7-bSBCnWIP1udnX6rcr3_8zlC8DnUVzMhtAVu_PA2kxxM59OmOOQwAOks7ziBYxeWZeLj-wIg9/s320/OCF+Lobby+Day+2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Volunteers all around Michigan took a poster to bring around to their activities having people sign them to show their support for oral fairness. A mobile petition you could say; twenty posters were created. After Thanksgiving, we received eighteen posters back and started to put a plan in motion to make a final run at getting oral fairness passed. The first full week in December ACS CAN hosted a two-day drop in lobby day where we took volunteers to the House chamber doors and sent in notes for their lawmakers to come out and discuss oral fairness. This started on a Tuesday morning and by the afternoon of that Tuesday, the answers from lawmakers were becoming consistent, oral fairness will not move without drug price transparency. We knew that lawmakers were talking with each other about the issue, which raised its visibility and caught the attention of the Capitol news corp. We also brought those posters to the Capitol and displayed them for everyone to see. The posters and our activities were noticed by the media and were featured in two news stories and several interviews on radio and television. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIC-IdM5uHwxqDRAqKpRdIRT2fhjOU0pX8iqHk3X45i8V0Km0-LP_h9uWAySHcTJOECcOOCywG_ErwsWNLt_bbcjida5T3q-KFXDU9RyISaJ30i8UgvrGX4dxRPdm9T9fOAPPHkf44omKB/s1600/OCF+Lobby+Day+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIC-IdM5uHwxqDRAqKpRdIRT2fhjOU0pX8iqHk3X45i8V0Km0-LP_h9uWAySHcTJOECcOOCywG_ErwsWNLt_bbcjida5T3q-KFXDU9RyISaJ30i8UgvrGX4dxRPdm9T9fOAPPHkf44omKB/s320/OCF+Lobby+Day+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Tuesday night our coalition created an amendment to counter the problem that the price transparency ask was attempting to address. Volunteers continued to come on Wednesday and continued to talk about the issue with their lawmakers and included that ACS CAN and others had an amendment to solve the problem that price transparency was addressing. Lawmakers took that information back to their colleagues, but still, the House leadership was convinced that the need for transparency was too great. Thursday came and went and lead us into the last week of the session. The first day of the last week was Tuesday and leadership was still not willing to move, which left us dead in the water, having to wait until next term to finally get the fairness patients deserve. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAtDz0hHy3chkcaudfUmzj-yQGc5giVGQQPSU9r1l8IXR51RaEaEwAnZ0qgrnzl642OiqL1Vea1Fhhv1bE1m3-mImvg9wyteIx3fqf3LjLDZql0y6q70Dhy9bEkGJ4WOyqSyxhVsSJSeQ3/s1600/OCF+Lobby+Day+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAtDz0hHy3chkcaudfUmzj-yQGc5giVGQQPSU9r1l8IXR51RaEaEwAnZ0qgrnzl642OiqL1Vea1Fhhv1bE1m3-mImvg9wyteIx3fqf3LjLDZql0y6q70Dhy9bEkGJ4WOyqSyxhVsSJSeQ3/s320/OCF+Lobby+Day+3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Throughout that second to last week of the 98th session, we had over twenty volunteers make the drive to Lansing to discuss oral fairness with just a couple weeks notice. We had over 250 calls go into the Speaker of the House's office asking for action. We had amendments to solve problems, we had over 2000 signatures from people all around Michigan, several hundred emails were sent from volunteers, but MAHP won the day. MAHP did find out though that the patient groups are a passionate force and will win this battle one day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">As we move forward in 2017, we just want to say thank you for all of your efforts in 2016. We won't let those efforts go to waste and use them to build on a great 2017. As always if you have any<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>questi</span>ons<span class="apple-converted-space"></span> please contact Andrew (andrew.schepers@cancer.org) and Matt (matt.phelan@cancer.org) and Happy New Year!<o:p></o:p></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-7653346390984584692017-01-03T11:52:00.000-08:002017-01-03T11:52:08.588-08:00Notebook Page 20 November 2016November has come and gone leaving on the most unpredictable elections this country has seen in quite some time. The top of the ticket had some impact in Michigan. The only chamber that was up for re-election or election was the House of Representatives. Many around Lansing were saying that the controlling Republicans would lose some seats in the House but will still hold a majority; but as we got closer to the election date that all seemed to change.<br />
<br />
Elections:<br />
<br />
Federal House:<br />
<br />
No real changes in the Michigan House of Representatives in terms of the amounts of Republicans and Democrats that represent Michigan in the Federal House. We did welcome two new lawmakers to the fold with the election of Representative-Elect Maj. General Jack Bergman (Ret.) from the 1st congressional district. He saw a tough election with Democrat Lon Johnson, a former state democratic party chair. The another newcomer to the delegation is Representative-Elect Paul Mitchell from the 10th congressional district. Mr. Mitchell will be taking the reins from Representative Candice Miller. Some of you make remember Mr. Mitchell due to his failed bid to win the Republican primary in Michigan's 4th congressional district in 2014.<br />
<br />
State House:<br />
<br />
Term limits bring the biannual revolving door of some lawmakers making their way out and new folks making their way back in. The current makeup of the House is 63 Republicans and 47 Democrats. Many in Lansing were thinking that the coat tails of the Republican Presidential nominee would not be able to carry candidates down ticket and that the nominee would actually lose Michigan and Republicans would lose seats in the House. The closer we got to election day we saw things starting to change. There was more activity around the top of the ticket in Michigan and things were starting to move towards the Republicans and they did. Republicans did not lose seats in Michigan nor did they gain any, we saw the same makeup that we are working with now, but there was one major difference, we saw the makeup become more conservative. The more conservative leaning could provide some challenges for us on our issues but not insurmountable.<br />
<br />
State Update:<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjakkwSkebnrpaOlI8FqjcSya2avs3IiQ9AvR3nzGZBh1WSYh3meGN06vPpmpTAe3k7SmwugGKA9dqy6q9S8YvW12c1cJ1J9HuoEpDGyCxRHIaeasK-8ULJGnfVQPs7zTEPcPui3KzxSOVS/s1600/Sandra+Posters.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjakkwSkebnrpaOlI8FqjcSya2avs3IiQ9AvR3nzGZBh1WSYh3meGN06vPpmpTAe3k7SmwugGKA9dqy6q9S8YvW12c1cJ1J9HuoEpDGyCxRHIaeasK-8ULJGnfVQPs7zTEPcPui3KzxSOVS/s320/Sandra+Posters.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandra Westover with her posters.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are still session days left on the calendar and at the start of December, we have three weeks left to push through our critical issue of Oral Chemotherapy Fairness. During November we asked our ACT leads and others to help us out by providing a visual representation of the people that are affected by oral chemotherapy in one way or another by giving out posters that people could sign to show their support for fairness. ACS CAN along with it coalition members had 20 posters created and spread all around the state.<br />
We will have these on display in the Michigan Capitol on December 6th and 7th along with having a lobby day type activities on both of those days. If you are interested in registering for the event please <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/X38C8NY" target="_blank">click here</a> to register. We need your help more than ever with Oral Chemotherapy Fairness, look for action alerts to come your way very soon!.Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-61419313226796578122016-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:002016-12-05T06:00:22.927-08:00Notebook Page 19 October 2016October has been a quiet month for the legislature. The House was scheduled for one day of session<br />
and cancelled that and the Senate was in Lansing for one week’s worth of work during the<br />
middle of the month. The only issue that concerned ACS CAN was the fix for the Medicaid funding<br />
mechanic called HICA (Health Insurance Claims Assessment).<br />
<br />
HICA was created a few years ago by the legislature when they found out the way they were collecting funding for Medicaid was not acceptable to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS). CMS stated that Michigan could not tax health insurance plans for having the ability to provide Medicaid services. So the legislature created HICA which taxed the health plans on the back end of service, taxing them at a rate of 1.25% of each claim they submitted to Medicaid for payment. This funding was then bundled and sent to the federal government where it could be matched and sent back to Michigan to pay claims.<br />
<br />
Recently CMS has stepped in again saying that the funding source for matching funds needs to<br />
come from a broad based revenue stream. This means they are looking for revenue that would<br />
impact everyone in Michigan rather than just those using Medicaid. So the legislature created a<br />
plan to deal with this situation. First the HICA would be repealed. The business community has<br />
always been at odds with the HICA since it’s inception a few years back. Secondly a fund would<br />
be created that would be used just to fund Medicaid. This fund would not be accessible by any<br />
other programs. Finally a percentage of the income tax would be directed to this new fund leaving<br />
less dollars for the state to appropriate in other programs.<br />
<br />
This creates a major shift in how we fund Medicaid and it is the hope that this will allay the<br />
concerns that CMS has about Michigan’s Medicaid funding. The legislation was passed by the<br />
Senate and was sent to the Governor’s office for his signature. The governor and his administration<br />
signaled during this process that they were not in favor of the legislation because they didn't<br />
feel it addressed the problems stated by CMS. On Thursday, October 27 the Governor honored<br />
his concerns and word and vetoed the legislation. It is unknown at this time if the legislature will return to override the Governor’s veto.<br />
<br />
If the legislature doesn’t return for a veto vote right away, they won’t see real business until after<br />
the Thanksgiving/Hunting break in the middle of November. This lawmaking period will really<br />
be controlled by the elections. Looking at some of Michigan’s battleground seats in the House,<br />
the chances of the House moving to a 55/55 split of Republicans and Democrats is looking better<br />
and better every day. This would mean that Republicans would lose control of the House<br />
and we could see a ton of legislation move that fits in the agenda of conservative republicans<br />
during lame duck session. So we are in a wait and see mode for the upcoming elections.Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-34814180293779918302016-09-27T08:34:00.001-07:002016-09-27T08:34:48.133-07:00Notebook Page 18, September 2016<div class="MsoNormal">
September found Michigan’s legislators returning to Lansing full time from their summer in-district work periods. Due to all of the activity of volunteers in support of Oral Fairness (Parity) legislation, they returned with oral chemotherapy on the forefronts of their minds. This summer ASC CAN saw hundreds of communications to lawmakers from all around the state on the importance of oral chemotherapy fairness and asking for support of Senate Bill 625 in its current form. In addition to our efforts, a strong coalition of ACS CAN, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Michigan Society of Hematologists and Oncologists, and others from around the state and beyond have engaged and activated their volunteers into action for the final push this fall. We feel more confident than any other time that this issue could finally make it out of the legislature and on to the Governor for his signature. </div>
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The other issue that had ACS CAN’s attention was the reworking of the Health Insurance Claims Assessment or HICA tax in Michigan’s Medicaid program. The purpose of HICA is to gain revenue for Michigan’s Medicaid program by taxing the claims that each HMO that services Medicaid processes. The HMO’s pay 1% of each claim to the state. That money goes into a fund that is sent to the federal government so that it can be matched by the federal government and sent back to Michigan to fund their Medicaid program. It can be thought of a user fee for the HMO’s who decided to carry Medicaid products. The issue that arises out of this is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services says that the only way the states can collect revenue to send for matching funds is through a “broad-based” revenue collection process. This is why the House and Senate worked on legislation that would change how HICA worked.</div>
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First HICA monies would be shifted from Medicaid to the general fund. Secondly a portion of the income tax dollars the state collected would be shifted into a fund specifically for Medicaid that would be used for the federal match dollars. Finally, the HICA would be sunsetted in 2018, where it was originally 2020. This could provide some funding problems for the Medicaid program along with other programs if HICA is sunsetted without other revenue, it will ensure cuts within the state’s budget. Lawmakers now head home to continue on working on their campaigns for the upcoming general election. I would expect activity on oral chemotherapy after the election and the Senate may act on the HICA issues in the one week they are in Lansing in October.</div>
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Federal Update</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDjJevvEKTmrcPsC84Fok_FqXiIuc5ioqBf5XVmXXB2FneSA540dHksvuy5ghaqmGqTRwSSYrpXAIDgqdgmr1actBwDrnEvphZMrz6jy717Efmus0W-_PyLJZE77Uo-gxVdmDWaus9MWo/s1600/Lobby+Day+2017+1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJDjJevvEKTmrcPsC84Fok_FqXiIuc5ioqBf5XVmXXB2FneSA540dHksvuy5ghaqmGqTRwSSYrpXAIDgqdgmr1actBwDrnEvphZMrz6jy717Efmus0W-_PyLJZE77Uo-gxVdmDWaus9MWo/s320/Lobby+Day+2017+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">More than 600 cancer patients, survivors and their loved ones from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district were on Capitol Hill on September 13 to ask members of Congress to make the fight against cancer a national priority. A dozen volunteers from Michigan attended the ACS CAN national Lobby Day to urge lawmakers to increase funding for cancer research and prevention programs, advance legislation that supports patients’ quality of life and ensure lifesaving colon cancer screenings are affordable for seniors.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ACS CAN advocates asked members of Congress to increase the budget for the National Cancer Insititute (NCI) by $680 million to support the Cancer Moonshot initiative. The Cancer Moonshot, led by Vice President Joe Biden, has the potential to accelerate progress against cancer through increased research funding and the development of new targeted detection tests, treatments and therapies. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In meetings on Capitol Hill, ACS CAN advocates from Michigan urged lawmakers to increase federal research funding at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) through the appropriations process and by passing 21<sup>st</sup> Century Cures legislation. The 21<sup>st</sup> Century Cures legislation was introduced by Michigan Congressman Fred Upton. Michigan advocates met with Rep. Upton and he supported increasing the NCI budget by $680 million.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRjod3spo8wECxn322y3x1Kcb7LpCaV9QOIQWkhtKNtGQikHns2gKGgxzluBz18qwANoMnhTL1OFAmArRK3yBXBUqZhg6MfGjG53IV68pWNhyphenhyphen1MQTawBfhKZn7o-LE3f3KRsm1u_MFfaB/s1600/Lobby+Day+2017+2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaRjod3spo8wECxn322y3x1Kcb7LpCaV9QOIQWkhtKNtGQikHns2gKGgxzluBz18qwANoMnhTL1OFAmArRK3yBXBUqZhg6MfGjG53IV68pWNhyphenhyphen1MQTawBfhKZn7o-LE3f3KRsm1u_MFfaB/s320/Lobby+Day+2017+2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Advocates also encouraged lawmakers to advance legislation that supports patients’ quality of life by increasing access to palliative care, an extra layer of support that can be provided at any age or any stage of illness. Additionally, advocates called on lawmakers to close a loophole in Medicare that often results in surprise costs for seniors when a polyp is found during a routine colonoscopy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span> <span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition to meeting with all members of the House of Representatives, Michigan advocates also met with Senator Debbie Stabenow and Senator Gary Peters. Both Senators were extremely supportive of all three priorities with Senator Peters telling advocates he’ll do whatever is needed to increase cancer research funding</span></span>Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-23637796226747496072016-08-01T06:54:00.003-07:002016-08-01T06:54:52.428-07:00Notebook Page 17, July 2016<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ACS CAN continues to
push for the passage of SB 625, the oral chemotherapy fairness legislation. The
Senate overwhelmingly passed SB 625 by a 36-1 vote in May. The legislation sits
in the House Insurance committee. The chairman has not confirmed a hearing or
vote for the legislation and time is running out before the end of session. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We
are working with coalition partners and others to get the legislation moved
before the November election date. Grassroots have taken place throughout the
summer to keep the issue in the spotlight for members of the House Insurance
Committee. ACS CAN and Relay for Life volunteers have taken over
Insurance Committee Chair Tom Leonard’s coffee hours in June and July and put a
major focus on the oral chemotherapy legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">An ordinance to make
the purchase of tobacco products illegal for any under age 21 was introduced in
Ann Arbor on July 18<sup>th</sup>. The ordinance is set for a final vote
on August 4<sup>th</sup>. If passed, Ann Arbor would become the first
municipality in Michigan to pass a tobacco 21 ordinance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently, Michigan State Representative Julie Plawecki
passed away suddenly. Rep. Plawecki was a champion for health issues in
the Michigan legislature and was set to introduce statewide legislation for
tobacco 21 in July. That legislation has been put on hold until a new
sponsor can be found. Additionally, Rep. Plawecki was the sponsor of
colorectal cancer screening legislation that is now </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">ACS CAN advocates in Michigan
have been pushing Congressman Fred Upton to act on HR 3119, the Palliative Care
and Hospice Education & Training Act (PCHETA). This legislation has a
total of 170 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and currently sits in
the House Energy and Commerce Committee which is chaired by Congressman Fred Upton
from southwest Michigan. ACS CAN will continue doing activity over the
summer to encourage Congressman Upton to put the legislation up for a hearing
in his committee. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-41307178804737820272016-06-03T12:55:00.000-07:002016-06-03T12:55:13.615-07:00Notebook Page 16, June 2016<div class="MsoNormal">
June signals the end of the budget discussions and more
importantly the unofficial start of summer. The House and Senate began their
work to revise the state budgets for the coming fiscal year. In mid-May the
House and Senate Fiscal Agencies along with the State Treasurer sat down and
gave their final revenue estimate for the coming fiscal year. Projections were
down from the January meeting due to lower tax revenue from gasoline. This left
the legislature with the need to find savings in the coming year. ACS CAN
contacted the six-member conference committee for the Health and Human Services
budget and asked that three items not be considered in their final
deliberations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two of the items were money related to tobacco and cancer
prevention. We asked that the tobacco
and cancer prevention lines stay at their current levels and not receive any
cuts from the current fiscal year budget.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third item dealt with access to cancer medications for
those on Medicaid. Since the nineties, those on Medicaid never had to obtain
prior authorization for certain classes of drugs. Those classes are arranged by
condition rather than drug class. Cancer is a condition that is listed in the
statute for those on fee-for-service Medicaid, those on an HMO plan receive the
protection but it is not written in statute, but rather an internal policy of
the Department of Health and Human Services. Language in this year’s budget
would allow that protection to be codified for one year for those on an HMO
plan. The committee is scheduled to meet during the week of June 6<sup>th</sup>
to finalized the budget.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our other exciting news in Michigan is we are now one big
step closer to have greater access to oral chemotherapy drugs in Michigan. The Senate
overwhelmingly passed Senate Bill 625 by a 36-1 vote. Senate Bill 625 is oral chemotherapy fairness
legislation that ACS CAN has been working on with other coalition partners. The
legislation now sits in the House Insurance committee where the chairman has
signaled that the legislation would not move until after the elections. We are
working with coalition partners and others to get the legislation moved before
the November election date. Grassroots
activities will take place throughout the summer to keep the issue in the
spotlight for members of the House Insurance Committee.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-76926556284486907012016-04-29T07:56:00.000-07:002016-04-29T07:56:04.627-07:00Notebook Page 14, April 2016Spring has finally made its way to Lansing and with that Lawmakers are making their way out of Lansing for their two week spring break. Some budgets have moved out of their subcommittees but the Health and Human Services budget still finds itself being tweaked. Let's take a look at what happened last month in Lansing.<br />
<br />
The House and Senate continue to work on their respective budgets for the coming fiscal year. This year the House signaled a trimming of the Health and Human Service budget which houses the programs that ACS CAN continues to support. Chairman VerHeulen said that the budget would see a reduction from the the Governor proposed for the coming fiscal year. It is unclear right now what funding will be effect in this large budget, but it is expected that both the cancer and tobacco prevention programs could be in the cross hairs. We expect to know after the legislature returns from its two week break.<br />
<br />
The Governor signed Senate Bill <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(a2n1gwnxn5rrlpo4eobtjfvo))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-SB-0150" target="_blank">150</a> in March. Senate Bill would allow for patient to sync their medication for a one fill date rather than having multiple fill dates and having multiple trips to the pharmacy. ACS CAN staff worked with the legislature and interested parties to help push the legislation over the finish line. The legislation was widely supported by both the House and Senate and the Governor signed the legislation. The changes will become effective by July 2016.<br />
<br />
More importantly Lobby Day is coming up in Michigan on April 19th. We have a ton of interest this year, thanks to everyone that has promoted our day. As we approach the deadline for Lobby Day registration next
week (April 5), we’d like everyone to follow up on any potential attendees
you’ve already talked with and avoid inviting any new volunteers at the last
minute. We still have dozens of potential volunteers to follow-up with so
please make that a priority in the next few days. <b>April 5th is a solid deadline due to the amount of interest we have this year for lobby day.</b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
After the registration deadline, all registered participants
will be receiving an email about logistics, transportation, and our legislative
issues. We’ll be having a call for volunteers on April 14<sup>th</sup> at
7pm to cover the topics that will be discussed at Lobby Day. Staff can
expect an email from me soon to discuss transportation and car-pooling from
your areas. Thank you again for everyone that has promoted lobby day around Michigan.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you have any questions about what is happening in Michigan and beyond please don't hesitate to contact Andrew (<a href="mailto:andrew.schepers@cancer.org">andrew.schepers@cancer.org</a>) or Matt (<a href="mailto:matt.phelan@cancer.org">matt.phelan@cancer.org</a>). </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-32382715952198205252016-04-29T07:54:00.001-07:002016-06-03T12:55:25.249-07:00Notebook Page 15, May 2016<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqUHc24HyAIcEDDokwXkPhKH7XUBE6Glk-BCMG8xVmdWHtw_6OOKOj9NMpTNhY7mQLbD-mzqDec0ZrtjUXIeJfjW5oxQvf_bXvzaAuTnBwYlryxySIdDwmMcWeNI-od8NtdV5kRF7Rg3J8/s1600/IMG_3417.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqUHc24HyAIcEDDokwXkPhKH7XUBE6Glk-BCMG8xVmdWHtw_6OOKOj9NMpTNhY7mQLbD-mzqDec0ZrtjUXIeJfjW5oxQvf_bXvzaAuTnBwYlryxySIdDwmMcWeNI-od8NtdV5kRF7Rg3J8/s320/IMG_3417.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michigan's Cancer Advocates at the Capitol.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Spring has finally made it's way back to Michigan. With the arrival of spring also means that volunteers from around the state will start to make their way to Lansing to talk to our lawmakers about issues that are important to all of those who face cancer every day. Lets review the happenings of April in Lansing:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u>Michigan Lobby Day a Big Success!</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3Ju4jBP6opK4kH6x0tq9wBkR6JKsPL1vkNIiehdoO3Z9oDiw5Hv8WTMKvdpnNh69k9j64EglFufGE-8yEGum_6g_Ic44GDkgNuqdLl8PYvpO7JUtGWHy-Hb0qP0yCXx0XMnbnRTFSEqT/s1600/IMG_3409.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv3Ju4jBP6opK4kH6x0tq9wBkR6JKsPL1vkNIiehdoO3Z9oDiw5Hv8WTMKvdpnNh69k9j64EglFufGE-8yEGum_6g_Ic44GDkgNuqdLl8PYvpO7JUtGWHy-Hb0qP0yCXx0XMnbnRTFSEqT/s200/IMG_3409.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Randy Hillard sharing his story<br />
about oral chemotherapy fairness.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u></u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><u></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On April 19,
119 ACS CAN advocates and staff met with state legislators for our annual
Michigan Lobby Day. Volunteers held 65 total meetings with legislators or their
staff. This year’s Lobby Day had over 30
more volunteers than last year and you could feel the electricity in the room.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This year’s Lobby Day focused on two policy areas: 1) support
for oral chemotherapy fairness legislation and 2) increasing Michigan’s tobacco
taxes and using this new revenue to fund Cancer and Tobacco Prevention
Programs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7hWVGex4B4fSQsxniItE6Tjy-z5XDtkQbVYksUYrItEje3JoG2kYfA8rRVSyosAZvcyf5WpdnVAC01e9OhyPdftpT4qZAVKfI1WPH3uOhvjbmQEUtu1Pqu7pmeZngRzUnA5Kpouq6IeXs/s1600/Phil+Moilanen+with+Rep.+Maturen_JPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7hWVGex4B4fSQsxniItE6Tjy-z5XDtkQbVYksUYrItEje3JoG2kYfA8rRVSyosAZvcyf5WpdnVAC01e9OhyPdftpT4qZAVKfI1WPH3uOhvjbmQEUtu1Pqu7pmeZngRzUnA5Kpouq6IeXs/s320/Phil+Moilanen+with+Rep.+Maturen_JPG.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phil Moilenan meeting with Rep. Maturen.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The day was
highlighted by some great speakers.
Cliff Douglas, Vice President of Tobacco Control for the American Cancer
Society and Carter Steger, Senior Director of State and Local Campaigns for ACS
CAN gave the keynote address about the harms of all tobacco products. Dr. Randy Hillard gave an inspiring talk
about his battle with stomach cancer and how oral chemotherapy was available to
him, but isn’t available to everyone because of its cost.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDU3u31_pRtb0fAuoGv7LSnoD_YuNQvWSJU3UBSZ0uiLSfSHbqSA20Qz75uXpCX3mWtNmn9xjhhyphenhyphenChSt-9X5IPdgdyKl9xq12twAZeYtQzl4gXJQVWRZnGnNBs7S-sgkN5rvk3Odt3jIey/s1600/Matt+and+Sandra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDU3u31_pRtb0fAuoGv7LSnoD_YuNQvWSJU3UBSZ0uiLSfSHbqSA20Qz75uXpCX3mWtNmn9xjhhyphenhyphenChSt-9X5IPdgdyKl9xq12twAZeYtQzl4gXJQVWRZnGnNBs7S-sgkN5rvk3Odt3jIey/s200/Matt+and+Sandra.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michigan's Volunteer of the<br />
Year Sandra Westover.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifUDPbTFTrYtYa4T8fTS-qmQ8OQDC6KIh28ZS73Kd_qn0NjJuFGcucPhB3U3MhVCUggCicN4-trjEmL1q498Ge0t3uJct_98bSZEhrJdZpVNav1qdEPoN46BWhsvsbKfhvjGlF_Isko3I9/s1600/IMG_3413.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifUDPbTFTrYtYa4T8fTS-qmQ8OQDC6KIh28ZS73Kd_qn0NjJuFGcucPhB3U3MhVCUggCicN4-trjEmL1q498Ge0t3uJct_98bSZEhrJdZpVNav1qdEPoN46BWhsvsbKfhvjGlF_Isko3I9/s200/IMG_3413.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hailey Urbach speaking at <br />
the rally. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To close the day, Miss Michigan International, Hailey Urbach
from Grosse Pointe spoke during our rally in the Capitol rotunda. Miss Urbach shared her mother’s story of
battling breast cancer and the need to advocate for such important causes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This year, ACS CAN awarded Sandra Westover from Frederic, MI
with the annual Volunteer of the Year award for her outstanding contributions
to ACS CAN and the American Cancer Society.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a result
of our Lobby Day, the Senate Insurance Committee passed our oral chemotherapy
fairness legislation by a 7-0 the following day. Our advocates pushed legislators to act and
they responded.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">State Update</span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As you can see from above the Senate Insurance committee passed out Senate bill <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(cxb50wl1buoz2sedfmz1ke1x))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-SB-0625" target="_blank">625</a> or the oral chemotherapy fairness legislation to the full Senate. It was thanks to the great work of our volunteers that helped the legislation have a smooth transition out of committee and over to the Senate floor. We will continue to monitor the legislation has it moves through the Senate. The expectation is that the legislation will move the first week in May. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Budgets are also on the move in both chambers. This year's budgeting process is more straight forward with elections looming for House members in August and November. The two main funding lines that ACS CAN concentrates on in the budget are the tobacco and cancer prevention lines in the Health and Wellness Fund. Years past this fund has been used as a funding football but with this being an election year the funding for those programs has not been touched. This is a good first step in the movement of the budget. We will be watching now for the middle of May when both the House and Senate Fiscal agencies and the State Treasurer come together to finalize the expected revenue for the coming fiscal year. That will tell us whether the state needs to cut or if they will have more money than they expected. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Federal Update<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -4.3pt;">
<b><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></u></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Colorectal
cancer screening legislation is gaining momentum in Congress. The Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer
Act is legislation supported by ACS CAN to close a loophole in Medicare. Many seniors are going in to get their
regular colonoscopy, but it is standard practice that a doctor removes any
suspicious polyp during the procedure. We know that removing these polyps,
saving lives. The problem is that some
seniors are getting bills in the mail after the procedure because the polyp
removal is not considered a “screening”. All screenings must be fully
covered by insurance. We are working
hard to close this loophole to save more lives.
To find out more about this legislation, please visit <a href="http://www.acscan.org/coloncancer">http://www.acscan.org/coloncancer</a><span style="color: #1f497d;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As always don't be afraid to reach out to us. Go to our </span></span><span style="line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Facebook</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> page at </span></span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/AcsCanMichigan" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/AcsCanMichigan </a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">for all of the latest updates and action going on in Michigan.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-24800893916354366332016-03-04T13:33:00.000-08:002016-03-04T13:33:14.386-08:00Notebook Page 13, March 2016<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Last month, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder released his
official budget. Unfortunately, Governor
Snyder’s budget called for sustained funding for the state’s cancer prevention
and tobacco prevention programs.
Governor Snyder also requested in his budget to use $720 million over 10
years from the tobacco master settlement agreement (MSA) to fix Detroit’s
public school system. ACS CAN does not
support this move. The Governor’s budget
did not call for any increases in state revenue.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Work continues on Michigan’s campaign to raise tobacco
taxes to fund prevention. Our coalition
called the Prevention Michigan Tobacco Free Campaign continues to grow. We now have 24 groups on board including the
major health organizations in the state.
Most recently, Michigan’s Prevention Network signed onto the campaign.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Recent gains with the Governor’s office toward support of a
tobacco tax increase have been significantly delayed due to the water crisis in
Flint. The crisis in Flint is expected
to distract the Governor’s office for the foreseeable future so our focus has
now shifted towards the legislature. Michigan’s State Lead Ambassador, Phil
Moilanen, will meet on March 4 with State Senator Mike Shirkey who is a key
lawmaker in the State Senate. Action alerts will be going out to advocates
throughout March and April leading up to Michigan’s Lobby Day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Michigan’s annual Lobby Day will take place on April
19. In addition to Lobby Day, we have
added a Leadership Breakfast on the morning of the 19<sup>th</sup>. This ACS CAN Leadership Breakfast will be a
fundraising event geared towards high profile volunteers and ACS CAN
partners. Dr. Randy Hillard and Vicki
Rakowski, RN have agreed to serve as honorary chairs for this event. Members of the legislative leadership and key
legislators related to health policy have been invited to the breakfast to talk
with those in attendance.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
The legislative issues, or asks, have been finalized for
Michigan’s Lobby Day. The day will focus
on two major issues, raising the state’s tobacco taxes and creating oral
chemotherapy parity to increase access to cancer drugs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
At Lobby day, we’ll be asking legislators to increase the
cigarette tax by $1.50 while bringing other tobacco products into parity with
the cigarette tax to increase revenue.
We’ll also ask our legislators to invest $50 million of the new revenue
created by this tax increase into our prevention programs. Michigan’s Tobacco Prevention Program only
receives $1.6 million in state funds annually while the Cancer Prevention
Program only receives $500,000. These
amounts are far below the recommendations set by the Centers for Disease
Control.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In 2004,
Michigan saw its last increase in tobacco taxes with the majority of the
dollars either being absorbed in Medicaid or in education. The funding for prevention
efforts such as tobacco and cancer prevention has dropped off significantly
during that same time. Additionally, other tobacco products like chew and
e-cigarettes have sky rocketed in usage. More and more of our youth are now
trying emerging tobacco products because they’ve been told these products
“aren’t as bad” as cigarettes or chew tobacco. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
The other legislative issue, or ask, that we’ll address at
Lobby day will be oral chemotherapy parity, or “fairness.” This issue has
finally started to see some action in the Senate. <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(lob4jmovxam4bswlo44jnqew))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-SB-0625">Senate
Bill 625</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> has
been </span>introduced and was brought up for
a hearing in the Senate Insurance Committee last month. Senate Bill 625 ensures
that patients facing cancer won’t have to pay a higher price for chemotherapy
taken orally, as opposed to intravenously in a hospital.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
Currently, 40 volunteers and 19 staff are registered for
Michigan Lobby Day. Registration will
end on April 5.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
This week, market teams were pressed to move Lobby Day
recruitment to the top of their priorities.
The larger markets of Detroit and Grand Rapids have been goaled at 12
volunteers recruited while the smaller markets (Flint, Lansing, Ann Arbor) have
a goal of 6 volunteers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
For more information, go to our website at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.acscan.org/action/mi">http://www.acscan.org/action/mi</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-71934532146694804292016-02-08T08:26:00.002-08:002016-02-08T08:26:14.239-08:00Notebook Page 12 February 2016<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">February signals the start of budget
season in Michigan with the governor scheduled to present his budget to the Legislature
on Wednesday, February 10 at 11:00 a.m. You can watch the hearing<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://house.mi.gov/htv.asp">here.</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> In
addition to the budget, there are several other issues we’ve been focused on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Oral chemotherapy parity, or “fairness,”
has finally started to see some action in the Senate. Last month, a coalition,
including ACS CAN, worked with Senator Goeff Hansen to have<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(lob4jmovxam4bswlo44jnqew))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-SB-0625">Senate Bill 625</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>introduced and brought up for a hearing in
the Senate Insurance Committee. Senate Bill 625 ensures that patients facing
cancer won’t have to pay a higher price for chemotherapy taken orally, as
opposed to intravenously. ACS CAN presented a letter to the committee, outlining
the need for access to these critical treatment options for patients facing
cancer. Our coalition hopes to have the legislation sent to the House before
the start of summer recess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Senate Health Policy Committee took up<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(umzpiycp3gn4n2hvtvh0ewth))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=2015-HB-4812&query=on">House Bill 4812</a><span class="MsoHyperlink">,</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>which would provide regulations for the
use of biosimilar medications in Michigan. These are drugs that are almost
identical to an original product manufactured by a different company. But
unlike generic drugs, they are not exact copies. We continue to support interchanging
biosimilar drugs with prescribed medications, as long as the patient’s health
care provider is notified. Because
biosimilars are somewhat different from the originally prescribed drug, it’s
important to notify a prescribing physician of the switch. This legislation is
expected to make it out of the Senate before summer recess. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Medication synchronization is another
issue that the House will take up later this month.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(umzpiycp3gn4n2hvtvh0ewth))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-SB-0150">Senate Bill 150</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>would allow patients schedule their
medications to be filled on the same day. This ensures that patients and their
caregivers won’t be running back and forth to the pharmacy to constantly refill
prescriptions. The bill has moved from
the Senate to the House for further consideration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">February is a busy month for ACS CAN in
Michigan. For more information, go to our
website at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.acscan.org/action/mi">http://www.acscan.org/action/mi</a>. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-3542274029042141752016-01-11T06:58:00.002-08:002016-01-11T06:58:53.576-08:00Notebook Page 11 January 2016<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Happy New Year and welcome to 2016. ACS CAN's campaigns are in
full swing in Michigan with tobacco prevention and cancer prevention on the
forefront of the agenda. Michigan lawmakers make their way back to Lansing on
January 13th for the first day of session. Not much is expected to happen in
the first couple days back since Governor Snyder will be giving his State of
the State address on January 19th. We are interested in seeing what the
Governor has in store for his agenda for 2016. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">As for issues happening in Michigan that
ACS CAN is involved in, we are continuing to meet with our coalition focusing
on tobacco prevention in Michigan. The coalition is made up of great partners
that are interested in getting tobacco and e-cigarettes out of the hands of our
kids in the right and responsible way. The Governor will be presenting his
budget message for 2016 in February and we hope that prevention will be on his
mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Oral Parity for Chemotherapy drugs will be
starting as well. Currently, Senate Bill 625 is awaiting a tentative hearing
date of January 20th in the Senate Insurance Committee. ACS CAN has been a part
of a coalition of partners with the leadership of the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society and Celgene. We are hopeful that the legislation will make its way out
of the Senate very soon!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">2016 is setting up to have an exciting
start to the year. Stay tuned to find out further information on our agenda,
the Governor's agenda, and others for 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-65538133287097507892015-12-07T07:44:00.000-08:002015-12-07T07:44:03.543-08:00Notebook Page 10 December 2016<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The legislature begins its final three weeks of session for 2016
this article we want to take a look back at what 2015 meant for CAN in
Michigan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">January:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Governor veto's legislation to regulate E-Cigarettes. The Governor
says in his veto statement:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">"I believe the preferred way to ensure that e-cigarettes are
regulated in the interest of public health is to revise the existing definition
of a tobacco product to make clear that e-cigarettes (and other novel
nicotine-containing vapor products) are tobacco products subject to any
restrictions generally applied to tobacco products under the Youth Tobacco Act,
including the minimum age law."</span></i><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Efforts have been made to reintroduce the legislation that is
similar to what passed and was vetoed last session, We continue to work with
the legislature to create common sense legislation and regulations surrounding
E-Cigarettes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">February:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Governor presented budget to the legislature, restores funding for
cancer prevention and included a $100k increase for tobacco prevention.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">April:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Over 90 plus cancer advocates take over the Michigan
Capitol to ask that cancer and tobacco prevention be a funding priority in
the state's budget. With the over 70 volunteers that joined staff at the State
Capitol, almost every volunteer met with their lawmakers. Jennifer Varner
received CAN's Michigan Volunteer of the Year award and Governor Snyder
received Michigan's Distinguished Advocate Award with his efforts around
E-Cigarettes and the Healthy Michigan Plan. Lieutenant Governor Brian
Calley spoke to the crowd at the end of our busy lobby day!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">June:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Legislature finalizes the budget, includes $500k for cancer
prevention and $1.6 Million for tobacco prevention. Attempts were made by the
Senate to move the cancer prevention line to the Health Endowment Fund; a
privately controlled fund set up by the legislature and Blue Cross. If those
efforts would have been successful it would've meant that the State would not
fund any cancer prevention programs. This was a huge victory for us and other
groups that were afraid of losing their program funding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">June-August:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Summer recess! Volunteers made in district meetings and drop by's
with state and federal lawmakers, working hard to get our messages to the
lawmakers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">As a result, U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow signed
on as co-sponsors to S 624, the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Screening bill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Members of Michigan’s Congressional delegation were targeted for
co-sponsorship and support of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century Cures Act. Michigan
ended up with 11 members signing onto the act and all but one member of
Congress voted in support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">September:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The State and Federal legislatures got back to work. In Michigan
regulations for Bio-Similar products was a hot topic for the state. Creating
regulations for these products could allow them to come to market in Michigan
and make them available, creating lower cost options for biological products.
This debate would go through until the end of October. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">More than 700 volunteers and staff took part in the annual
Leadership Summit and Lobby Day in Washington DC. Michigan's delegation
represented the state extremely well gaining co-sponsors on critical
legislation around polyp removal coverage legislation and legislation supporting
palliative care training. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was recognized at the
event with the National Distinguished Advocacy Award. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">October - November:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">October and November saw bio-similar products at the forefront of
the legislative activity. Additionally, the foundation was being set to start a
large campaign issue for 2016. ACS CAN started the Prevention Michigan
coalition. The coalition’s goal is to raise the tobacco taxes and use the
funding to support prevention efforts in cancer and tobacco and to support the
state's trauma system. We kicked off our activities with a poll and release the
week of the Great American Smoke Out. The poll found 6 out of 10 Michiganders
support an increase in the cigarette tax and 6 out of 10 provide more support when
they know the new funding would go towards health initiatives. This shows clear
support from the State for an increase in the tax and support for health in
Michigan. We continue to grow our coalition to gain more support throughout the
health community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">December:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">December looks as if it might be quiet for our issues in Michigan.
We will continue our work on Bio-Similar products, support the newly introduced
oral parity legislation and continue our work around the tobacco taxes. Petitions
for the Prevention Michigan campaign are being collected with a goal of 5,000
petitions collected in 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">We also want to take a moment to say thank you. Our volunteers,
ACT Leads, State Lead Ambassador, Community Ambassadors, and others give so
much of their time to help support our efforts. Without your voice, the voice
of cancer would go away. Thank you for all that you do and we hope you have a
great 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-51332300726039403982015-11-02T08:00:00.000-08:002015-11-02T08:00:06.309-08:00Notebook Page 9 November 2015<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">October found the state in full gear working on trying to find a
solution to the road situation in Michigan. This left a lot of the health
issues and others on the back burner for many different groups including ACS
CAN. The House Health Policy Committee did consider one issue that ACS CAN has
some interest in; Bio-similars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Biologic drugs are a classification of drugs that are made through
a process that involved a living organism. The process uses that living
organism to create the active ingredient in the drug that will be used to fight
whatever the drug has been approved for. Biological drugs have been used to
treat breast cancer and other cancers so
access to these critical medications is crucial. Today, the science is evolving
and how biologic drugs are being made is changing. Many manufactures are
creating what’s called a Bio-similar medication. That drug is similar to the
biologic that it is trying to replicate but not quite the same thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has created regulations
that govern these bio-similar products creating two classifications,
bio-similars and interchangeable bio-similars, which are even closer in
resemblance to the primary biological drug. These drugs are usually less costly to the patients,
making access to them extremely important. Michigan does not have any
regulations that would allow these drugs to come to market and the first
bio-similar is about to hit store shelves here in the next couple months,
therefore regulation of these products is needed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">House Bill 4812 was introduced by Representative John Bizon, a
physician from Battle Creek, to provide regulations around bio-similars. A
critical part of his legislation provided an avenue for physicians and
pharmacists to communicate when an interchangeable bio-similar is changed out
for a biologic. For safety reasons physicians have the knowledge if there is a
switch and the patient has an adverse reaction. For the patient it can provide
a piece of mind that the physician knows what is happening with their care.
Another piece of legislation was introduced, House Bill 4437, which we oppose
that does not provide the communication piece in the legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The House Health Policy Committee took testimony on House Bill
4437 with the majority of the testimony being against the legislation. ACS CAN
provided written testimony explaining our support for communication for safety
and peace of mind. We expect the House committee to take up HB 4812 since there
is a lack of support for HB 4437. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This past month we also had our second meeting of the Michigan
Palliative Care Summit. Health leaders from around the state met in Lansing and
began work on a road map to quality palliative care in Michigan. Close to twenty
health care professionals and patient advocates participated in the great work
that was done. We are hopeful that with all of the great notes that were taken
by each work group a draft document can be created to provide the road map that
Michigan needs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lastly, Michigan has leveraged Breast Cancer Awareness month
to push Governor Snyder to increase funding for the Cancer Prevention
Program. Michigan’s Cancer Prevention
Program houses the Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Navigation Program. This program is vital to making sure all
women have access to the screenings and follow-up care necessary to make an accurate
cancer diagnoses and secure the proper treatment. Volunteers from around the state have been
collecting postcards throughout the month asking the Governor to increase
funding by $2 million in his next budget.
Over 2,000 postcards have been sent to the Governor so far.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-44850251347712265632015-10-12T05:48:00.000-07:002015-10-12T07:26:46.326-07:00Notebook Page 8 October 2015September was a full month for ACS CAN in Michigan. The Michigan legislature made it's way back from its summer recess and the with national Leadership Summit and Lobby Day ahead, the ACS CAN team from Michigan was in full swing legislatively on both state and federal fronts.<br />
<br />
In Michigan legislation was introduced to regulate bio-similar pharmaceuticals. Biologics are a classification of drugs that are commonly used for the treatment of cancer along with arthritis and other conditions. These drugs are created through a completely different process from your common pharmaceuticals like aspirin. Biologics use biologic materials to create the drug which leaves it extremely hard to recreate into a generic form. They have created drugs called bio-similars which gets extremely close to the original biologic composition but not quite.<br />
<br />
These drugs are so new that regulations from state to state have not been created yet. ACSCAN is working with other interested parties to create legislation and regulations that would allow for the switching out of the biologic to a bio-similar but require that the pharmacist contact physician to notify them that switch has been made. The House Health Policy committee will be taking testimony on two bills dealing with the issue. We support House Bill <a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(cbwwhgidlaq04qmsyq4v3pwy))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-HB-4812">4812</a> from Representative John Bizon, a physician from Battle Creek. <br />
<br />
Also in September ACSCAN made it's way to Washington D.C. for it's annual Leadership Summit and Lobby Day.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Michigan delegation to the national Leadership Summit
and Lobby Day was very successful this year.
We held 12 meetings with congressional offices along with meetings with
Senator Gary Peters and Senator Debbie Stabenow.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Accomplishments on
the Hill<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4xaJ1aBet2kCdTHmEUtBpoEMvMSx58IZAIkOWRC-7pxA6EmrlAIqtXaKRJB640umoCsbarw3Cgmwg30jjwqY6wjDAF6E_N2AcWqcdFksYutYJ3-EQUOtW6c8GzoCd_c7WUN6qXFkuE_c/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV4xaJ1aBet2kCdTHmEUtBpoEMvMSx58IZAIkOWRC-7pxA6EmrlAIqtXaKRJB640umoCsbarw3Cgmwg30jjwqY6wjDAF6E_N2AcWqcdFksYutYJ3-EQUOtW6c8GzoCd_c7WUN6qXFkuE_c/s320/1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
After excellent meetings with our Congressional members, we
were able to get verbal commitments from Rep. Dave Trott and Rep. Debbie
Dingell to co-sponsor H.R. 1220, the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Screenings
Act, and H.R. 3119, the Palliative Care & Hospice Education Act. Additionally,
we were able to thank Senators Stabenow and Peters for co-sponsoring S. 624,
the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Screenings Act. The Senators signed onto the bills earlier
this year after meeting with our volunteers in Michigan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Advocacy Awards<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michigan was well represented at the annual national
advocacy awards dinner. Michigan ACT
Lead Jennifer Varner was awarded the national ACT Lead of the Year Award for
her outstanding work over the last year, and over the last few years, with
advocacy and program integration.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jennifer’s Award was highlighted in a recent news article in
Midland.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PU14e_yLLmHM47a-LBPbdzK9hwU0SbIimq3COQlf4ebXL8ZWgl5SEXAbhpfFrCXVjk1Xpf8SkgOXNyRuUSto7K5p7GFq8XQxFN3yd-Y1mff1h7L0tdLzUCCA1nHwYKdsy5a8NtlXtP9h/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PU14e_yLLmHM47a-LBPbdzK9hwU0SbIimq3COQlf4ebXL8ZWgl5SEXAbhpfFrCXVjk1Xpf8SkgOXNyRuUSto7K5p7GFq8XQxFN3yd-Y1mff1h7L0tdLzUCCA1nHwYKdsy5a8NtlXtP9h/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://www.ourmidland.com/news/freelander-receives-top-award-for-excellence-in-cancer-fighting-advocacy/article_f1ef6b3b-b8ac-5e51-8731-93494506e252.html">http://www.ourmidland.com/news/freelander-receives-top-award-for-excellence-in-cancer-fighting-advocacy/article_f1ef6b3b-b8ac-5e51-8731-93494506e252.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/0iwJWQLf5Tw/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0iwJWQLf5Tw?feature=player_embedded" style="clear: right; float: right;" width="320"></iframe>Michigan Governor Rick Snyder won the National Distinguished
Advocacy Award for his support of ACS CAN priorities over the past few
years. Governor Snyder spearheaded the
charge to expand Medicaid in Michigan with his Healthy Michigan Plan. Over 600,000 Michigan workers now have access
to health insurance and life-saving cancer screenings through this plan. Additionally, Governor Snyder took a firm,
and very public, stand against e-cigarettes by heeding the call of ACS CAN
volunteers to veto misleading e-cigarette legislation. This legislation would create a special class
for these products and possibly prevent them from all tobacco control
laws. Governor Snyder was not able to
attend but did record a video accepting the award which was played during the
Leadership Summit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, Matt Phelan was awarded the Grassroots Professional
of the Year award.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnh4GmfyKg4jpHw51xiIgN8eYWHfzAQEOwgxElEqhy9H8trvyf8L2RAMyF3HsxWkzy1CqxhMZiozHaPzSZfNszfH0osQu85pIYU_BXRu3kum_SrvnVTIso_QnpUA6-PHCvpjlsSYy-Uxx/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnh4GmfyKg4jpHw51xiIgN8eYWHfzAQEOwgxElEqhy9H8trvyf8L2RAMyF3HsxWkzy1CqxhMZiozHaPzSZfNszfH0osQu85pIYU_BXRu3kum_SrvnVTIso_QnpUA6-PHCvpjlsSYy-Uxx/s320/3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Lights of Hope<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This year’s Lights of Hope ceremony saw significant rain,
but that only showed the vigilance of cancer advocates as they ventured out
into the weather to honor those that are battling cancer or have lost their
battle. There were a record 22,000 bags
around the Capitol Reflecting Pool this year and thanks to some fantastic
volunteers, Michigan collected around $12,000 in Lights of Hope
donations! The Lakeshore Division ranked second in Lights of Hope donations
and Michigan ranked 4<sup>th</sup> among the states. We only trailed the
mega-states, Texas, California and Florida. Michigan volunteer Jennifer Belaire was the
top online fundraiser in the nation this year for Lights of Hope collecting
over $2,000 in online contributions.<o:p></o:p></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-22959496255303624272015-08-28T10:41:00.004-07:002015-10-08T08:00:37.980-07:00Notebook Page 7 August 2015<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The summer recess for Michigan’s Legislature is quickly coming to
an end and while lawmakers have enjoyed some time off, ACS CAN has remained
hard at work preparing for the fall session. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">One of our ongoing priorities is the issue of palliative care. On
August 27<sup>th</sup> ACS CAN hosted the Michigan Palliative Care Summit in
Lansing. The summit brought together
patient leaders, physicians and others from around the state to take an
in-depth look at ways to improve palliative care and patient quality of life in
Michigan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Debbie Webster, from the Michigan Department of Health and Human
Services, started the program and provided information on Michigan's Cancer
Plan and what the Michigan Cancer Consortium’s five year goals are around
palliative care. She was joined by Dr. Gary Roth, the medical director of the
Michigan Health and Hospital Association's Keystone Center. The Keystone Center
is charged with finding quality measures and initiatives surrounding high risk
or critical areas in medicine. He is also a thoracic surgeon <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQL44qyxaR1dHE7D_fGs5q7qQuQyGYjsR_jEDkaJFCBS2F2uJrLDBReEG2vLQqZfceSKsZZGhw8HWGHY382XA1HSsdl1cuZkmtn7VaAmlzws7Zfrx6w1Vi5CVsHvBJh0HSmRkBd0zyuY5/s1600/PC+Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrQL44qyxaR1dHE7D_fGs5q7qQuQyGYjsR_jEDkaJFCBS2F2uJrLDBReEG2vLQqZfceSKsZZGhw8HWGHY382XA1HSsdl1cuZkmtn7VaAmlzws7Zfrx6w1Vi5CVsHvBJh0HSmRkBd0zyuY5/s320/PC+Photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Presentation from Debbie Webster from MDHHS</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
with extensive
experience using palliative care with his patients. Finally, Dr. Michael Stellini, palliative care
director for the Veterans Administration Hospital in Detroit, spoke about his
experience in a multi-year VA initiative creating comprehensive palliative care
teams—including doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains—and how that has
worked to improve patient care.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The presentations provided a framework for a robust round table
discussion wherein our experts and others focused in on a few major hurdles
facing palliative care in Michigan. Namely: workforce development, availability
of in-home care, education and awareness of palliative care among families and
patients, and reimbursement and data tracking for providing such care. The
group left the event energized and excited to start tackling these issues ahead
of the next October gathering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In addition to palliative care, the ACS CAN Michigan team
continues to narrow down our priorities for the 2016 legislative session. If
your office is interested in a sneak-peak at what’s to come this session,
please contact Matt Phelan at <a href="mailto:matt.phelan@cancer.org">matt.phelan@cancer.org</a> </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">to set up an office lunch
and learn.</span></div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-6338335795986764142015-07-07T10:51:00.002-07:002015-07-29T13:17:17.245-07:00Notebook Page 6 July 2015<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Session has finally come
to the summer recess with both chambers passing their versions of a road
funding solution for Michigan. Now the question is how the state will generate the
revenue to cover the crumbling road situation. This is a good time for us at
ACS CAN to take a step back and review the activities of the past six months.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This year started with
the governor taking a strong stance on e-cigarette regulation by vetoing the
legislature's attempt to classify those products separately from tobacco
products Governor Snyder wrote in his letter to the legislature:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>"Michigan
should not enact new state law that is not consistent with a legally-mandated
approach proposed by the U.S. FDA, which is to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco
products. To do so will unnecessarily sow confusion, send a mixed health
message to the public on a subject that is already complex and confusing to
many and effectively conflict with the Sottera ruling issued in 2010 by the
Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia at the request of the e-cigarette
industry itself."</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The governor
went on to say:<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">"I believe the preferred way to ensure that
e-cigarettes are regulated in the interest of public health is to revise the
existing definition of a tobacco product to make clear that e-cigarettes (and
other novel nicotine-containing vapor products) are tobacco products subject to
any restrictions generally applied to tobacco products under the Youth Tobacco
Act, including the minimum age law."</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The governor's
leadership provided a strong victory against the tobacco industry's attempt to
create their own harmful regulations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This year's budget cycle
started at the end of January with Governor Snyder offering his recommendations
for the state's coming fiscal year. His budget proposal appropriated $500,000 for
cancer prevention and $1.6 million for tobacco prevention. This was the first
time in a while that tobacco prevention has seen an increase in funding, and
the cancer prevention appropriation was a win, since an executive order earlier
in the year took away the $500,000 that was appropriated last year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This lead into our Day
at the Capitol where our volunteers asked lawmakers for $1 million
for both cancer prevention and tobacco cessation. </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit, serif;"> 86 volunteers and staff from across the state made the trip
to Lansing to speak with the Legislature We took time to highlight our
Volunteer of the Year, Jennifer Varner from Freeland. Jennifer has worked tirelessly
to further the mission of ACS CAN and the fight against cancer. It was only
fitting that she would receive the award this year. We also awarded
Governor Rick Snyder our Distinguished Advocacy Award for 2015. His leadership
and efforts surrounding the Healthy Michigan Plan (Medicaid Expansion), e-cigarettes
and restoring cancer prevention funding made him worthy of the award.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit, serif;">All of the efforts from our Day at the Capitol were seen over
the next several months as lawmakers tried to tie down the budget. The Senate
was still trying to decide what to do with the prevention money as they had
taken half, including all funding for cancer prevention, and moved it out of
the budget. The House kept with the governor’s recommendations and left the
money in the budget for prevention. Volunteers from around the state called and
e-mailed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chair Senator Marleau
to discuss why it was important to keep this funding in place. There were more
than 200 contacts to Senator Marleau and other members of the conference
committee. Those contacts ultimately kept prevention funding in place for this
year, which was another huge victory for Michigan.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now
that the budget session is over for another eight months, we are now starting
to focus on the other issues that are swirling around the Capitol. E-cigarette
regulation, oral parity for chemotherapy drugs, a tobacco tax increase and
legislation that would allow for medication synchronization will be
on the forefront of our agenda for the fall. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;">The grassroots side has been extremely active as well. Issues surrounding the one degree campaign and 21st Century Cures legislation that has been introduced by Congressman Fred Upton from St. Joseph have been creating a lot of buzz around the state.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Some of our ACSCAN Michigan ACT Leads teamed up with the
Lansing Lugnuts at Cooley Law School Stadium to raise awareness of the national
One Degree campaign on June 21. The event was one of dozens nationwide
where minor league baseball teams are teaming up with ACS CAN and Fans for the
Cure as part of the One Degree campaign to make cancer research funding a
national priority. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Our ACT leads staffed tables during the baseball game to
collect petitions and raise awareness about the One Degree campaign.
ACSCAN and the Lugnuts sent a joint press release prior to the game that
resulted in a <a href="http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/Lansing-Lugnuts-Fans-Help-Fight-Against-Cancer-308883811.html">great television news segment</a> featuring ACT Lead Jennifer Varner
that ran in the Lansing area on WILX. Additionally, this exposure led to
ACT Lead Beth Trierweiler being interviewed on the television and radio program
Current Sports with Al Martin the next day.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
ACT Lead Beth Trierweiler and Heidi Varner were honored
at the game by throwing out the first pitch. This was a great awareness event
for ACSCAN in Michigan and lead to a good amount of social media interaction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Michigan Congressman Fred Upton is the lead sponsor on the
21<sup>st</sup> Century Cures Act so Michigan has been targeted for grassroots
activity. Recently, ACSCAN pushed to secure co-sponsors for the
bill. Michigan has secured 11 out of 14 members of the Michigan
delegation as co-sponsors. This included Congressman Mike Bishop, Dave
Trott and John Moolenaar who were all targeted with a social media campaign by
ACSCAN volunteers that successfully pushed them to sign onto the bill.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-87489296940296782582015-06-01T18:54:00.001-07:002015-06-01T18:54:20.390-07:00Notebook Page 5 May 2015<div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">The H</span><a href="" name="_GoBack"></a><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">ouse and Senate </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">are </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">in the final days of the budget</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> writing</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> process. </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">Last month, P</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">roposal 1 </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">was rejected by Michigan voters. This proposal would have funded many state programs through a one percent increase in the sales tax. Since the proposal was defeated, Legislators have been searching for ways to fund programs without raising taxes which has resulted in many cuts in the state budget. Fortunately, revenue expectations show</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> a small increase for the coming fiscal year</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">. L</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">egislators </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">are</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">prepared to finalize Michigan's </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">state </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">budget</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> with fewer cuts than expected.</span></div>
<div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">This year</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> with the budgetary picture being pretty grim, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">our volunteers’</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">efforts </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">through phone calls, emails and</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">L</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">obby </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">D</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">ay brought a victory for cancer and tobacco prevention in Michigan. The House and Senate agreed that cancer prevention should not lose funding, as the Senate </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">had </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">suggested, and </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">maintained funding levels at $500,000 for the next fiscal year. Additionally, </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">tobacco prevention </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">will </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">actually s</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">ee</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> a</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> $100,000</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> increase </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">in</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">funding</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> for the next fiscal year</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">.</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"></span></div>
<div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">Saving these programs from being cut was a significant victory made possible by the actions of our advocates. In the final weeks of budget negotiations Community Ambassadors were asked to contact State Senator Jim </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">Marleau</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">, the chair of the conference committee. Community Ambassadors sent Senator </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">Marleau</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> over 30 emails and called his office around 20 times within several days. We believe this pressure assured our programs would be saved. In addition, an action alert was sent out targeting the conference committee that resulted in over 200 actions being taken.</span></div>
<div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<br /></div>
<div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
<span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">Overall</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> it was a great budget cycle for cancer and tobacco prevention. We may not have seen the increases that we</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> advocated for during L</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">obby </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">D</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">ay</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> but we did avoid the fate that other programs saw with a loss of funding. Moving forward</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">,</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> we want to ensure that our programs don't find themselves in the crosshairs of the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">legislators</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">in the </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">next</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">budget cycle. So we </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">will work</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"> hard to find a </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">permanent </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;">funding solution for these programs in the coming months.</span></div>
<ul>
</ul>
Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-31003714994572959402015-05-08T07:26:00.000-07:002015-05-08T07:26:14.802-07:00Notebook Page 4 April 2015<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinkhRLbA_PR4ls2cXa-33ewfMDehgD_77dOU5QU2NcO-MtRa5007fokXNkZ9dulqR5PVOHxieD-4lSefitrHsB3G1T3wF9mPVtfJyfTzZUZkir4ouV2VjAYBcnm3sWs2m1Ki7sQQNuuNEJ/s1600/IMG_2628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinkhRLbA_PR4ls2cXa-33ewfMDehgD_77dOU5QU2NcO-MtRa5007fokXNkZ9dulqR5PVOHxieD-4lSefitrHsB3G1T3wF9mPVtfJyfTzZUZkir4ouV2VjAYBcnm3sWs2m1Ki7sQQNuuNEJ/s200/IMG_2628.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SLA Phil Moilanen Starting<br />Lobby Day</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Last week, ACS CAN and its volunteers took Lansing by storm
with its annual Lobby Day at the Michigan Captiol. Cancer and tobacco prevention
funding was on the minds of the volunteers and staff who took part in the
annual event. ACS CAN had a total of 86 volunteers and staff from across the
state made the trip to Lansing to speak with their lawmakers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">This year, our main speaker was Dr. Eden Wells from the Michigan
Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Wells laid the foundation for the
meetings with lawmakers that were slated to happen later that day with her
presentation on the epidemiology of cancer throughout Michigan.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Lung cancer still continues to be the number-one killer in
Michigan when it comes to cancer. Smoked tobacco usage rates continue to fall
in Michigan, but with the introduction of e-cigarettes, the trend is shifting
from smoked to "vaping." The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also
reported that teenagers’ use of e-cigarettes has risen over the past few years.
This is causing young people to become addicted to nicotine and move on to
other tobacco products.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjw4bwDgctAXDi7ekLmK2O7je70usrBUX-rCzUAoEXf-iIpwsVvrm9DSL3nUvVBrVHgrGDZ6bqZ8cd86vZhZZZH92jZ__-bpzh4A18hqH7rrfKG40fN2iuqzfCQmstqE3OxP6QyEL1mFC/s1600/Jennifer+Varner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigjw4bwDgctAXDi7ekLmK2O7je70usrBUX-rCzUAoEXf-iIpwsVvrm9DSL3nUvVBrVHgrGDZ6bqZ8cd86vZhZZZH92jZ__-bpzh4A18hqH7rrfKG40fN2iuqzfCQmstqE3OxP6QyEL1mFC/s200/Jennifer+Varner.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jennifer Varner with<br />Matt Phelan with her<br />Volunteer of the Year Award</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Now it was time to know why we were in Lansing. Sarah Pagano, a
cancer survivor, shared her story with the group, bringing perspective on why our
work was so needed. Sarah's story of strength brought an electricity to the
room, charging up those who were going to be talking to lawmakers that day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Following Sarah’s remarks, we awarded our Volunteer of the Year
Award to Jennifer Varner, an ACT lead from Freeland. Jennifer has worked
tirelessly to further the mission of ACS CAN and the fight against cancer. It
was only fitting that she would receive the award this year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Now armed with information, our volunteers were ready for the
House members to join them for lunch. Lawmakers and staff filled the room to
hear volunteers’ personal cancer stories and why the Legislature needed to
prioritize the fight against this disease. . There was support from many House
members for the increase in funding for the cancer and tobacco prevention
programs in Michigan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-CXvudTzlrYsfKw2QYHNemOpzeecrsR70Q_AuqN_AN_4PjA6gx29eiKFrAkmrM8RvoiGTb8OlHb7kDyLhiYmSZ8-ghUWf2dXJLqSLbdXNksD8kWVFTuN6S_ZM4_3SHVu4WaZ_t7T0NiQa/s1600/Michael+McCready.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-CXvudTzlrYsfKw2QYHNemOpzeecrsR70Q_AuqN_AN_4PjA6gx29eiKFrAkmrM8RvoiGTb8OlHb7kDyLhiYmSZ8-ghUWf2dXJLqSLbdXNksD8kWVFTuN6S_ZM4_3SHVu4WaZ_t7T0NiQa/s200/Michael+McCready.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ACS CAN Volunteer Jay Kalisky with<br />Rep. Michael McCready</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">From there, ACS CAN members met with senators and their staff to
talk about the need for cancer and tobacco prevention funding. Afterward, we met
back at the Capitol to rally around why we were in Lansing that day. Joining us
was Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley. He was there on behalf of the governor to
support our efforts in raising the bar for cancer prevention and discuss the
importance being actively engaged in the legislative process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">At the end of the day, we had an opportunity to present the ACS
CAN Distinguished <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJDwv3gJfhAyxJW6VwcjfXHNmMCNgPhQvXKOoAy3iGnuPE71d8tT86-khxzL8D99LtSByafy44awNgNArUjyzX9_UBCc0LqbsRewiOY2NkAwgCo-ulBMvi3G5JwiluiYeu_pCgVyBq7nr5/s1600/IMG_2633.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJDwv3gJfhAyxJW6VwcjfXHNmMCNgPhQvXKOoAy3iGnuPE71d8tT86-khxzL8D99LtSByafy44awNgNArUjyzX9_UBCc0LqbsRewiOY2NkAwgCo-ulBMvi3G5JwiluiYeu_pCgVyBq7nr5/s200/IMG_2633.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Group photo with Lt. Governor Calley<br />after the rally.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Advocacy Award to Governor Snyder in his office. Since the governor
was not able to attend the rally, he asked that we stop by for a quick chat in
his office and to take a photo of the group with him receiving the award.
Governor Snyder has been a great champion for ACS CAN by supporting the Healthy
Michigan Plan, restoring cancer prevention funding in his budget this year and
vetoing the tobacco industry's attempt to classify e-cigarettes as something other
than a tobacco product. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtRHL9O2B7gOaLXKNIC80pL3_h2Aq5EG43G2NhyCvFIbChzS5DlOFOTcgvlkJTq1NTTMXhFEk_KlNaDE0UMicLzasXaxSMx-TBgoz4-MKvZ72zB-gwGI7qMPLsroKNyxHj3MgYaw3BpFco/s1600/IMG_2634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtRHL9O2B7gOaLXKNIC80pL3_h2Aq5EG43G2NhyCvFIbChzS5DlOFOTcgvlkJTq1NTTMXhFEk_KlNaDE0UMicLzasXaxSMx-TBgoz4-MKvZ72zB-gwGI7qMPLsroKNyxHj3MgYaw3BpFco/s320/IMG_2634.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ACS CAN presents our Distinguished Advocate Award<br />to Governor Rick Snyder</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Wrapping up the day, many approached us and explained how they
truly enjoyed Lobby Day this year and felt it was extremely effective. We have
already seen the positive effects with many lawmakers talking about cancer and tobacco
prevention in Michigan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Thank you to all of those who made the trip the Lansing to speak
to your lawmakers! Your voice made a difference in the fight against cancer.
Remember that there is still more to do. Contact us or watch for e-mails
talking about coffee hours, or set up meetings in your hometown to meet with
your lawmakers. We need to continue to keep cancer prevention on the forefront lawmakers’
minds. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<o:p></o:p>Andrew R. Schepershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16567650489789100538noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6492887072111029569.post-77252431371001209582015-04-20T10:28:00.001-07:002015-04-20T10:28:53.560-07:00Notebook Page 3 April 2015<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Things started to heat back up in Lansing this week with lawmakers
making their way back from a two-week long spring break. What is ahead of them
from here until summer? Budget work is the number one issue on everyone's mind.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Let’s review the happenings from this first week back from break:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">House:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The House Education Committee took testimony on Senate Bill<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(wdsxepevypyqojfwcqq4cuis))/mileg.aspx?page=getObject&objectName=2015-SB-0139" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">139</span></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">, which would allow for bake sale
fundraisers in schools. Under current federal regulations, if items that are
being sold are not within nutritional standards, they are not allowed to be
sold. There are exceptions for items that are prepackaged like Boy Scout
popcorn or Girl Scout cookies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">ACS CAN is a member of the Healthy Kids Healthy Michigan (HKHM)
coalition that supports better nutritional standards, better health education
classes and more activity for kids while at school. We joined HKHM in
opposition of the legislation, since it would weaken the nutrition standards in schools, with the hope of seeing substantial changes to
the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">legislation</a></span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">. We are looking forward to working with
HKHM and others to change the bill moving forward.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Senate:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The Senate were working on other issues this week that were tied in to Auto No-Fault reform. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Budget:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The Senate Appropriations Committee started to move its budget
bills this week. The Department of Community Health Budget is scheduled for
action on Tuesday. The House has scheduled its appropriations committee for
every day they are in Lansing this week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday). We
will be watching the movements of the budget with this hurdle over and several
more to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Federal:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">One federal note from our last notebook entrance.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22HR+2%22%5D%7D" target="_blank">House Resolution 2</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>was
passed by the Senate and was sent to the President for his signature. This is
huge for us since it allowed for re-authorization of funding for Federally
Qualified Health Centers until <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">2017</a>. This is important because now the federal government will keep funding these centers that provide health care to those who are </span><span style="font-size: 18px;">undeserved</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to
contact me at<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="mailto:andrew.schepers@cancer.org"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">andrew.schepers@cancer.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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