House Passes Bills On Breast Cancer, Down Syndrome; Senate Considers Contraceptive Pricing Fix

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Sexual Health / STDs;  Public Health
Article Date: 29 Sep 2008 - 6:00 PST

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Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate have prepared economic stimulus packages that they will try to pass this week, CQ Today reports. According to CQ Today, the Senate draft of the proposal circulating on Capitol Hill reportedly includes legislative language supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) that would undo a provision in the 2006 deficit reduction law (PL 109-171) that created a disincentive for pharmaceutical companies to provide large discounts on some drugs to family planning clinics and university health centers (Clarke/Higa, CQ Today, 9/25). As a result of the Deficit Reduction Act language, the cost of birth control at health centers has risen dramatically (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/28).

House Passes Breast Cancer Legislation

The House on Thursday passed two bills that would improve hospital care for breast cancer patients and increase research into the environmental causes of the disease, CQ Today reports. The breast cancer bill (HR 758), which passed 421-2, would prevent both individual and group health insurance plans from limiting hospital stays for women who have undergone mastectomies or lumpectomies to less than 48 hours, or 24 hours for women who have had a lymph node dissection, unless a physician determines a shorter stay is medically appropriate.

Twenty states currently require coverage for minimal hospital stays following a mastectomy. The measure now heads to the Senate, where a companion bill (S 459) has 19 co-sponsors. A Republican aide in the Senate said that the bill was unlikely to clear the chamber this week because some senators want more time to study the issue.

The House on Thursday also passed legislation (HR 1157) by voice vote that would authorize $40 million in additional annual spending through fiscal year 2012 to the NIH for breast cancer research-related activities. Although the bill does not instruct the agency to perform specific research, it aims to encourage studies on the relationship between breast cancer and the environment, which, according to the measure's supporters, is not well understood.

According to CQ Today, the bill also would establish an Interagency Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Coordinating Committee within HHS. The committee would be staffed by breast cancer advocates, as well as members of scientific and medical communities, and would make recommendations and solicit proposals for breast cancer research. A Senate companion bill (S 579) with 70 cosponsors is expected to clear the chamber later this week, CQ Today reports (Demirjian, CQ Today, 9/25).

House Clears Down Syndrome Bill

The House passed a bill (S 1810) by voice vote that would require physicians to provide information and support services to patients receiving a positive test diagnosis for Down syndrome or other prenatally and postnatally diagnosed conditions. The bill now heads to President Bush, who is expected to sign the measure (Wayne, CQ Today, 9/25).

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