Advocates, Lawmakers Call On Congress To Pass Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 25 Jan 2008 - 6:00 PST

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Advocates, lawmakers and officials from the cable network Lifetime on Wednesday gathered in Washington, D.C., to lobby for legislation (HB 758, S 459) that would require insurance providers to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for a woman who undergoes a mastectomy if the doctor and patient feel the stay is necessary, the Baltimore Sun reports. The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), has 204 co-sponsors in the House, and the Senate version has 18.

Proponents of the legislation say that many of the estimated 90,000 women who have mastectomies annually are released from the hospital within hours or one day after the surgery. Twenty states allow physicians and patients to decide if an additional day in the hospital is needed for recovery after mastectomy surgery. According to the Sun, DeLauro planned to present legislators with a petition signed by 20 million people on Lifetime's Web site. She also planned to provide each member of Congress with signatures from his or her constituents.

"I'll say, 'These folks are from your district,'" DeLauro said. She added, "Then I think we'll get a hearing, and then it will be hard to keep it off the floor. And I don't think many will want to vote against two extra days for women who have gone through something as traumatic as this surgery." Meredith Wagner, Lifetime's executive director of public affairs, said she will continue collecting signatures for the petition, as well as continue advocating for the bill and other measures that would benefit women (Cohn, Baltimore Sun, 1/24).

American Public Media's "Marketplace Morning Report" on Wednesday reported on the bill. The segment includes comments from David Blumenthal, director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Alan Garber, director of the Center for Health Policy at Stanford University (Hobson, "Marketplace Morning Report," Marketplace, 1/23). Audio and a transcript of the segment are available online.

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