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Joel B. Finkelstein |
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WASHINGTON – Patient advocates
are holding rallies on the Capitol steps here this week trying to
force the hand of the Senate, which has held up a bill that would
ensure that women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through a
federal screening program have access to treatment as well.
An estimated 182,800 new cases of breast cancer will be
diagnosed in American women this year and 40,800 women will die from
the disease. There are approximately 15,000 new cases of cervical
cancer in the United States every year, and about 5,000 women a year
die of the disease.
Demonstrators chanted, “Pass 662, now!”
referring to the Senate’s version of the Breast and Cervical Cancer
Treatment Act, yesterday at a rally attended by Senator Lincoln
Chafee (R-R.I.), whose father, the late Senator John Chafee,
introduced the bill. Some senator has anonymously put a hold on the
bill, indefinitely delaying a vote.
Many
advocates see the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act as a
natural extension of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality and
Prevention Act of 1990. That bill established a program at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide free screening
for breast and cervical cancers. However, no funds were allocated
for treatment. Women diagnosed with either disease were forced to
pursue treatment through a network of health care providers,
volunteers and local programs that often offered poor quality and
consistency of care.
The Senate Finance Committee
unanimously voted to approve S.662 last month, and President
Clinton’s budget for fiscal year 2001 includes funding for the
program. A similar bill has already been passed in the House (see a
related
story). Once it passes the Senate, S.662 will go to a joint
committee, where differences between the two bills are reconciled.
The consolidated bill then goes to the president for signing.
Spokeswomen from the National Breast Cancer Coalition, which
organized the rallies and has lobbied for the bill, voiced concern
that if the act was not passed before the Congress recesses next
week, the issue may not be a priority when Congress returns.
“We have terrific momentum,” Chafee told the crowd. Already
73 senators have signed on as co-sponsors for the bill, meaning it
is virtually guaranteed to pass if it comes to the Senate floor.
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