The Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) affirms that health care is a fundamental human right, as articulated in the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO). AOSW supports public policies that ensure all people affected by
cancer have access to high-quality, affordable, timely, and equitable health care across the cancer care continuum.
AOSW recognizes that health outcomes are shaped not only by medical care, but by social drivers of health and we work actively to reduce these disparities, including economic stability, housing, food security, education, neighborhood conditions, social connection, and access to transportation.
AOSW supports public policies that dismantle systemic inequities, including structural racism and other forms of discrimination, as well as regional inequities and rural health care disparities that affect access to timely, high-quality cancer care. Access to quality
of care should not be determined by where someone lives, how they identify and what they look like. These structural barriers contribute to persistent cancer disparities in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life care.
AOSW affirms that robust, sustained investment in cancer research is essential to reducing cancer incidence and mortality, improving quality of life, advancing equitable treatments, and ensuring that scientific progress benefits all populations. Cancer research-including prevention, treatment, survivorship, psychosocial, health services, and implementation science-must remain a national public health priority.
AOSW believes health policies should promote:
- Access to Comprehensive Cancer Care: All individuals should have access to high-quality care across the full cancer care continuum, including prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, palliative care, supportive care, and end-of-life care.
- Affordability and Financial Protection: Health care must be affordable for all individuals, regardless of income, employment, or insurance type. This includes reasonable premiums, deductibles, and cost-sharing, as well as protections from medical debt and cancer-related financial hardship.
- Equity and Elimination of Disparities: Health systems and programs should collect, analyze, and report disaggregated data (including race, ethnicity, language, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and geography) to identify disparities, inform interventions, and direct resources to historically marginalized populations.
- Addressing Social Determinants, Social Risks, and Social Needs: Policies should support routine screening for social risks (such as housing instability, food insecurity, transportation barriers, caregiving strain, and financial toxicity) and ensure timely responses to identified social needs through community partnerships, care coordination, and sustainable funding mechanisms.
- Continuous and Stable Coverage: Health insurance coverage should be available without interruption, regardless of employment status, pre-existing conditions, income, age, developmental stage, geographic location, or health condition.
- Non-Discrimination and Consumer Protections: Individuals should not experience discrimination in health care or insurance coverage based on health status, pre-existing conditions, genetic information, disability, age, race or ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, country of origin, or any other characteristic. Unjustified premium increases, coverage rescissions, and lifetime or annual limits should be prohibited.
- Supportive Cancer Care as an Essential Benefit: Supportive care-including psychosocial care, symptom management, pain control, mental and behavioral health services, caregiver support, and advance care planning-should be fully integrated into oncology care from diagnosis through survivorship and end of life. Policies should ensure these services are recognized, reimbursed, and sustainably supported as essential components of quality cancer care.
- Patient Navigation Services: Patient navigation should be universally available to help individuals and families overcome clinical, financial, cultural, and logistical barriers to care. Oncology Social Work Navigation must be evidence-based, culturally responsive, integrated into care teams, and sustainably funded across care settings.
- Mental and Behavioral Health Parity: Mental and behavioral health services must be covered at parity with medical services and accessible through a trained, licensed workforce capable of delivering affordable, culturally responsive care within oncology settings.
- Person-Centered and Family-Centered Care: Cancer care should attend to psychosocial concerns, honor dignity and identity, support family and unpaid caregivers, and promote shared decision-making aligned with patients’ values, preferences, and lived experiences.
- Clinical Trial Access and Research Equity: Barriers to clinical trial participation should be eliminated to ensure diverse, representative enrollment. Research policies should prioritize equity, community engagement, and the translation of evidence into real-world cancer care.
- Mitigation of Financial Toxicity and Employment Protections: Affordable health care should be paired with policies providing employment protections, livable wages and support for family caregiving.
- Innovation and Flexibility in Care Delivery: Policies should support innovative approaches that reduce barriers to care, including telehealth, transportation supports, in-home services, interdisciplinary care models, and oncology social work interventions grounded in a person-in-environment framework.
- Prevention and Health Promotion: All individuals should have access to evidence-based preventive services, including screenings, vaccinations, health education, nutritious foods, and safe opportunities for physical activity