WASHINGTON, D.C. -- October 1, 2007 -- As National Breast Cancer Awareness Month kicks off today it’s important to note that inadequate funding continues to limit the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Prevention Program (NBCCEDP) to providing screenings to only one in five eligible women nationwide. It has been six months since President Bush signed a bill reauthorizing the program in a White House ceremony, raising the funding level to $275 million over five years. The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network has asked lawmakers to accelerate funding for the program from its current level of $202 million to $250 million now, which would allow at least 130,000 additional women to access screening and treatment when necessary. In many parts of the country, the program struggles to maintain services for the women it currently serves.
"We have scientific evidence that links insurance status to stage of cancer diagnosis, with uninsured women twice as likely to have a worse outcome. Women who need this program are delaying critical screenings and treatments because the necessary resources haven’t been made available," said Daniel E. Smith, President of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). "What if the eligible women who aren’t being served by this program included your mother, your sister, your daughter or your friend? Years of insufficient funding for the NBCCEDP not only mean that four out of five eligible women will continue to go unserved, but with rising health care costs, even those served today may not be able to access services in the future. This is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- it’s time for Congress and the President to provide more funding."
ACS CAN has long advocated for NBCCEDP and led the effort to pass legislation to expand the program and include a Medicaid treatment component through the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act. Administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NBCCEDP provides access to high-quality breast and cervical cancer screening and follow-up services to low-income, uninsured and other medically underserved women ages 50-64 for breast cancer screenings, with some states serving women beginning at age 40 in accordance with guidelines established by our sister evidence-based charitable organization, the American Cancer Society. This program has been implemented in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, 4 U.S. territories, and 13 American Indian/Alaska Native organizations. Since its establishment in 1991, it has provided 6.9 million screening tests to more than 2.9 million women, resulting in the diagnosis of more than 29,000 breast cancers; 94,000 precancerous cervical lesions and 1,800 cervical cancers. While more lives can be saved through this program, it is currently able to serve only one in five eligible women (20 percent) nationwide due to a lack of funding. Help is needed to ensure that all programs can meet this need.
"Regardless of financial or insurance status, everyone deserves the opportunity to fight this disease at its earliest, most treatable stages," said Laura J. Hilderley, RN, MS, volunteer chair of the ACS CAN board. "For many, this valuable program is often the only resource available to help save their lives."
Recent scientific research published in the peer-reviewed journal CANCER a publication of the American Cancer Society, has shown that people who are uninsured, and people with certain types of public health insurance, are more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced cancer compared to those with private insurance, and, as a result, are at greater risk of death. These patients face much more difficult and far more expensive medical treatments, as well as a diminished quality of life unnecessary realities had current advances in cancer prevention, detection and treatment options been more easily available.
Another recent report from the Society, finds that while the overall mortality rate for breast cancer continues to decline, more work needs to be done to improve the survival rates for low-income, uninsured, ethnic and minority women who have less access to the screening, follow-up care and high-quality treatment critical to beating the disease. The report specifically finds a striking divergence in long-term mortality trends seen between African American and white females that began in the early 1980s and that by 2004 had led to death rates being 36 percent higher in African American women. Given that half of the women the NBCCEDP serves are minorities, the new data gives credence to the need for additional program funding so that more eligible women can get the mammograms they need and more lives can be saved.
According to Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2007-2008, 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected among women and approximately 40,460 women are expected to die from breast cancer in 2007. Except for skin cancer, breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women (accounting for more than one in four cancers diagnosed in U.S women). Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women.
ACS CAN is the nonprofit, nonpartisan sister advocacy organization of the American Cancer Society, which is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage lawmakers, candidates and government officials to support laws and policies that will make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.