By Vinnie Duncan, Chair of the NC State Grange Board
Each year, nearly 70,000 North Carolinians receive the devastating news that they have cancer. In rural communities, where access to preventive care and cancer screenings is comparatively limited, diagnoses are often made later, when the disease is harder to treat and more costly. The burden of cancer is alarmingly high in our state, and it’s hitting rural families hardest.
That’s why the North Carolina State Grange is grateful to U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) for his leadership on a bipartisan bill that can help change this trajectory: the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) Screening Coverage Act H.R. 842. This legislation would allow Medicare to meaningfully cover MCED tests, an innovative new tool in our fight against cancer.
MCED technology uses a simple blood draw to detect dozens of cancers, including many for which we have not had accessible screening technologies. For years, we’ve only had routine screenings for only five types of cancer — breast, cervical, colorectal, lung and prostate. These new tests offer the promise of identifying cancers earlier, when they are more treatable and less expensive and burdensome.
Early detection is especially urgent in rural areas, where cancer outcomes are worse and the urban-rural disparity continues to grow. Nationwide, cancer deaths in rural areas are 14% higher than in urban ones. In North Carolina, limited access to specialists, transportation challenges, and hospital closures have all contributed to later diagnoses and poorer survival rates. MCED tests, which are easy to administer, could help address these disparities by bringing high-quality cancer detection tools directly to patients, regardless of where they live.
The costs of inaction are staggering. Cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in the United States and the costs – emotional, physical and financial – are especially heavy when the disease is diagnosed late. Failing to detect cancer early not only threatens lives, it also imposes enormous financial strain on families and the healthcare system.
This is why the Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act is so critical. It would cut through bureaucratic red tape and ensure that once MCED tests are approved by the FDA, they can be covered by Medicare without unnecessary delay. More than 550 organizations nationwide support this legislation, including rural health advocates, patient groups, and medical associations, along with over 300 Members of Congress.
As rural advocates and stewards of North Carolina’s agricultural and small-town communities, we urge Congress to follow Representative Hudson’s lead and pass this bill into law this year. Cancer touches every corner of our state, but with bold, innovative tools and common-sense policy, we can greatly decrease the burden of cancer for future generations.