American Cancer Society officials launched what they described as an "unprecedented" campaign Monday to encourage a national debate about access to healthcare in the United States. Speaking to reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, the organization's leaders said fixing the nation's broken healthcare system is key to winning the war against cancer.

"We… are here today to declare that lack of access to timely and adequate healthcare has become a major cancer killer in America," said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society. "Far too many Americans do not have access to cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment services that we know and have proven save lives."

To raise awareness of the issue and encourage Americans to get involved in finding ways to fix the problem, ACS has launched a series of advertisements to run on network and cable television, in print, and online from now through November. The ads highlight the plight of people diagnosed with cancer when they had no health insurance or too little coverage to pay all their costs.

People like Raina Bass of Booneville, Missouri.

Although she had insurance through her own employer and through her husband's, the policies did not cover all the costs of her thyroid cancer treatment, leaving her family with bills they could not afford. When she became self-employed, she found herself unable to supplement her husband's coverage with a new policy of her own.

"I called numerous insurance companies," Bass told reporters at the conference. "Many told me goodbye as soon as I told them I'd had cancer. Some told me to call back in 5 or 6 years once I'd been cancer free for a while. … I had insurance companies tell me they would look into some policies and return my call. Needless to say, I still haven't heard from them."

Bass is far from alone, according to ACS national volunteer president Richard Wender, MD. About one-third of cancer patients report difficulty paying their medical bills, and nearly half skimp on treatments because of the cost, he said at the conference.

That situation is "a disgrace," said actor Bradley Whitford, who narrates the new ad campaign, as well as other ACS advertisements.

"If I pulled out a gun right now and shot you all dead, I would be given access to health care for life. On the other hand, if I worked hard, I got laid off, and my child got leukemia, my family and I would be out of luck," he said, looking out over the gathered reporters. "Such is the state of healthcare in the most privileged country on the face of the planet and it is a disgrace."

ACS is not endorsing any particular plan for healthcare reform, officials stressed. Rather, the organization is looking to frame the debate about healthcare as the country moves into an election period, in hopes that elected officials -- of whatever political party -- will take steps to address the problem.

As a starting point, ACS and its sister organization, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), developed 4 principles that should define healthcare coverage in the US:

• Adequate: People must have timely access to the full range of health care, including prevention and early detection.
• Affordable: Health care costs should be based on the patient's ability to pay.
• Available: People need to have coverage no matter what their health status is or what treatments they've had in the past.
• Administratively simple: Health care processes should be easy to understand and navigate.

"We do not believe there is a single way to solve this problem," said ACS CAN president Dan Smith. "We will provide tools so people can make their own judgments."

The new campaign does not mean the American Cancer Society is abandoning its traditional roles in funding cancer research and educating and serving patients, officials emphasized during the conference. Indeed, this new effort dovetails with the organization's many other initiatives,

"We are not backing off in any way from our history and the commitment that we've had throughout our entire existence in promoting education regarding prevention and early detection, or in our commitment to navigation for patients. In fact we're accelerating our work in helping patients navigate through the cancer problem," said Wender. "And we are certainly not backing off in any way our commitment to lifesaving cancer research.

"But we need to educate the public about the fundamental, central barrier that must be overcome -- and that is lack of access to care -- if we're going to keep making progress against cancer."

Smith said ACS and ACS CAN are still committed to crucial causes like increasing federal funding for cancer research; regulation of tobacco by the Food and Drug Administration; increasing tobacco taxes; fully funding the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, a program that provides free or low-cost mammograms and Pap tests to uninsured and underinsured women; and establishing a similar program to provide colon cancer screening to low income Americans.