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As breakthrough drugs offer critical hope to patients, lawmakers should focus on shoring up the social safety net

Published May 15, 2026 10:05AM (EDT)

Insurers frequently deny or delay cancer care to patients, including breakthrough immunotherapies like Keytruda (Shivansh Gupta/PA Images via Getty Images)

After former President Jimmy Carter used the cancer drug Keytruda — which ultimately helped him become the first U.S. president to live to 100 — cancer patients across the United States had one request for their doctors: “I want what Jimmy Carter had.”

But not everyone who wanted the treatment could get it. Some patients had cancers that weren’t treatable with the drug.…