Healey Signs Bill to Address Breast Cancer Screening Inequities
Legislation will eliminate costly barriers to follow up breast cancer screening
Murkowski Amendment to Health Reform Bill Would Not Ensure Access to Lifesaving Cancer Screenings for Women
December 3, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC -- December 3, 2009 -- "Cancer patients and survivors are opposing the amendment to health care reform legislation offered by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) because it would not ensure no-cost preventive services for women.
"Eliminating co-pays, deductibles and other cost sharing for preventive services is essential to expanding access to mammography and other life-saving screenings and preventive services.
"ACS CAN strongly supports improving the process for determining recommendations for preventive services by making the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force more transparent and accountable to the public, and by giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services the authority to consider evidence-based guidelines developed by other groups as the basis for coverage of preventive services.
"ACS CAN supports the amendment offered by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) that would guarantee women access to lifesaving cancer screenings such as mammography and Pap tests, and encourage insurers to consider a variety of guidelines when making coverage decisions."
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
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