Breast Cancer Is a Bipartisan Issue and an Urgent Health Crisis. The National Breast Cancer Coalition (NBCC) calls upon all candidates for federal office to support NBCC’s policy platform and prioritize ensuring access to affordable health care,protecting scientific research and its funding and supporting policies that will end breast cancer. More than 4 million women and thousands of men in the United States are living with breast cancer. In 2026, an estimated 321,910 women and 2,670 men in this country will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, and an additional 60,730 women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). In the US alone, an estimated 42,670 women and 530 men will die of breast cancer this year. We still do not know what causes breast cancer, how to prevent it or cure it, or how to stop it from metastasizing.Our Platform NBCC will report to the public those candidates who endorse our platform. Public officials will be held accountable for how they vote and govern with regard to this platform. Read more at
stopbreastcancer.org/breastcancercaucus/RESEARCHThe federal government must:
- Protect the advancement of scientific knowledge and research through federally funded
programs and oppose actions that undermine the integrity, continuity, or independence of the
scientific enterprise.
- Appropriate sufficient funds annually to support meaningful breast cancer research and develop
policies that guarantee transparency, oversight, and accountability of that investment.
Appropriate $150 million for fiscal year 2027 and pledge continued support for the Department
of Defense peer-reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program.
ACCESS- Health care is a basic human right. The federal government must guarantee that
everyone has access to patient-centered, evidence-based, high-quality, and affordable
health care and:
- Assure Medicaid coverage for treatment of low-income women screened and diagnosed with
breast cancer.
- Waive the waiting periods for Medicare and disability benefits for those with metastatic breast
cancer who qualify under Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
- Ensure law, regulation and science policies that result in approval of drugs that significantly
extend or save lives and whose prices are based on value or effectiveness.
INFLUENCE- The federal government must ensure that trained and educated advocates
representing a constituency and personally affected by the disease have a seat at all
tables where breast cancer research, health care, and policy decisions are made and
implemented.
