American Cancer Society Ad Campaign Highlights Issue of the Uninsured, Editorial States

The American Cancer Society's decision to spend its entire advertising budget this year on addressing inadequate health coverage highlights the fact that "any delay in detection or treatment, as is common among the uninsured or poorly insured, can be fatal," a New York Times editorial states. The "stark and sobering" fact is that unless access to care is widened, lack of access might become a "bigger cancer killer than tobacco," according to ACS CEO John Seffrin, the editorial says.

The Times continues, "With 47 million Americans lacking health insurance and millions more with only limited coverage, it is imperative to provide adequate, affordable, readily available health coverage to everyone." It concludes, "The cancer society doesn't prescribe how to do that, but its campaign leaves little doubt it must be done" (New York Times, 9/10).