Sen. McCaskill Discusses Tobacco and Health Care Reform With Missouri Advocates

Barry Waggoner of St. Charles traveled with a team of Missouri cancer advocates to Washington DC and met Tuesday with Sen. Claire McCaskill. The Missourians thanked Sen. McCaskill for her co-sponsorship of a federal law to regulate tobacco products and discussed the current health care reform debate and its importance to cancer patients and their families.

The Missouri cancer advocates recognized Sen. McCaskill with the American Cancer Society's "Cancer Prevention Champion" Award for her leadership in the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

"Without Senator McCaskill's co-sponsorship, this historic legislation would have been more difficult to pass. We've been working on this bill for nearly ten years and Senator McCaskill helped seal the final passage," said Barry Waggoner, American Cancer Society advocacy volunteer. "Cancer advocates in Missouri commend her leadership on this issue."

Sen. McCaskill received the award for her support of historic legislation authorizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the manufacture, sale and marketing of tobacco products. Signed by the President on June 22, the new law will require basic regulatory actions such as ingredient disclosure and sales and marketing restrictions.

Until now, tobacco has been virtually the only unregulated consumable product in the United States. The new law will ban candy and fruit flavored cigarettes, stop the marketing of tobacco products to children, require tobacco companies to list the ingredients in their products, and mandate larger and more effective warning labels.

Waggoner and the Missouri advocates also discussed with Sen. McCaskill the critical need for health care reform. Many cancer patients become too ill to work and lose both their jobs and their health insurance. A recent poll showed that one in three people diagnosed with cancer have delayed care. One in five have used all or most of their savings for health care costs.

"Health care reform is a life or death matter for thousands of cancer patients," said Waggoner. "Once someone has been diagnosed with cancer, they are branded with a pre-existing condition and are turned away by health insurers. They lose their jobs, lose their health insurance, and ultimately lose their lives. This shouldn't happen in America."

ACS CAN is the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate organization of the American Cancer Society, dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage lawmakers, candidates and government officials to support laws and policies that will make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer. For more information, visit www.acscan.org.