Protect Funding for Show-Me Healthy Women

The Show Me Healthy Women Program is a program within the Department of Health and Senior Services that provides access to high-quality breast and cervical cancer screening and follow-up services to low-income, uninsured and other medically underserved women for cancer screenings who meet residency, age, and income qualifications.

Many deaths from breast and cervical cancers could be avoided by increasing screening rates among minority and medically underserved women. Mammography and Pap tests are underutilized by women who have less than a high school education, are older, live below the poverty level, or are members of certain racial or ethnic minority groups. 

Despite the availability of screening tests, deaths from breast and cervical cancer occur more frequently among women who are uninsured or underinsured.  

Excluding all cancers of the skin, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in Missouri and accounts for nearly one-third of all cancers diagnosed in women.  

Pap tests can detect precursors of cervical cancer, which, if diagnosed and treated in a timely manner, can prevent the development of invasive disease.  Additionally, these tests can detect invasive cervical cancer at an early stage, when it is most curable.

Legislative Request:

Maintain the House position of $500,000 from general revenue and federal match to support breast and cervical cancer screening and education for low-income Missouri women through the Show-Me Healthy Women Program at DHSS.