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June 22, 2005

Support the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act

A friend of ours called my attention to The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 (S. 910). The bill has three basic provisions:

A second opinion. This bill assures a patient of a second opinion for any cancer diagnosis. A cancer diagnosis must be reliable.

Inpatient coverage. The bill ensures that a health care provider cannot limit hospital stays for a mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery to less than 48 hours, and also assures a 24-hour stay for lymph node dissection.

Support for lumpectomy treatment. This bill requires coverage for radiation therapy for patients undergoing lumpectomy. Together with the assurance of inpatient care, this act removes the economic incentive for a woman to select mastectomy simply to reduce the immediate cost of treatment.

The first and last of the listed provisions particularly strike home. Our family faced this decision over ten years ago. The GP, upon seeing the results of a mammogram wanted to immediately referred Shirley to a surgeon.. Luckily our insurance at the time covered a second opinion and Shirley found the breast center at the Norris Cancer Center and they recommended a lumpectomy with radiation rather than a mastectomy. Again, luckily, our insurance covered most of it. Shirley has been cancer free ever since.

I hope all my readers will support his bill. You can go to the Life Time Television for Women website to sign an online petition. To my women readers, I hope you will not only support the bill but also get your mammograms on schedule.

A word about medical costs: Bills like this one are often opposed by claiming that they run up medical costs. In fact they do very little of the kind. This bill could well reduce medical cost by providing coverage for lumpectomy and radiation rather than forcing qualified women to make an economic decision to have a mastectomy. Putting medical decisions in the hands of patients and their doctors does not drive up medical costs. The real costs of health care lay elsewhere.

Posted by DuaneSmith at June 22, 2005 11:47 AM | Read more on Odds and Ends |

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