Healey Signs Bill to Address Breast Cancer Screening Inequities
Legislation will eliminate costly barriers to follow up breast cancer screening
Ray Carson
Budget Proposal Demonstrates Critical Importance of Cancer Screening Program
May 5, 2017
TALLAHASEE, Fla. – May 5, 2017 – Florida House and Senate leadership agreed to include $2.2 million in funding for the Mary Brogan Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program in the budget released yesterday. The program provides lifesaving cancer screenings to medically underserved women between the ages of 50 and 64 whose incomes are below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
“Senate and House leadership clearly recognize that providing women the opportunity to detect cancer early when it is most survivable is something that everyone deserves, no matter who they are or where they live,” said Heather Youmans, senior government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “Their support of this program in this year’s budget shows how critically important the program is and we encourage the Governor to accept this appropriation to ensure more women have access to the program.”
Since the program first received state money in fiscal year 2013, more than 132,500 women have received screenings and diagnostic services through the program.
“This program has been a lifesaver for hundreds of women in Florida because it provides access to evidenced-based screenings, which are the most important tools for detecting breast and cervical cancer early and improving survival rates,” said Youmans.
Florida has moved up to 2nd in the United States in the number of new breast cancer cases per year as well as in the number of deaths. An estimated 18,170 Florida women will receive a breast cancer diagnosis and an estimated 2,910 are expected to die from the disease in 2017.
ABOUT ACS CAN
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 https://www.fightcancer.org/.
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