"This program is critical to the fight against breast and cervical cancer," Grassley said. "It reaches out to the thousands of women who fall through the cracks of the current system and have no way to pay for treatment after receiving the devastating news that they have these illnesses. It assures them of the treatment they need to survive."
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has approved nine new states' requests to extend Medicaid benefits to uninsured women who are diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through a federal screening program. Iowa, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington are the most recent states to take advantage of the federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000, which allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to these women who otherwise would not have health coverage. To date, 19 states have received approval for this expanded Medicaid eligibility.
Grassley was a lead sponsor of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000. He took up the cause of moving it through Congress after its original sponsor, the late Sen. John Chafee, died in office.
Grassley was moved by the experience of a woman from Evansdale, Iowa, who learned of her cancer through the early detection program and was left to rely on charity care while accumulating more than $70,000 in debt for her breast cancer treatment. She'd considered quitting treatment to avoid saddling herself and her family with so much debt.
Under the new law, states can extend the full Medicaid benefit package to women who were screened through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and found to need treatment for breast or cervical cancer. Since the program began in 1990, more than 3 million breast and cervical cancer screening tests have been provided to more than 1.8 million women.
To qualify for Medicaid coverage under the program, women must be under age 65, not eligible for Medicaid and without creditable health care coverage. Under the law, these women may now be eligible for Medicaid benefits for the duration of their cancer treatment. "A lot of women can't afford cancer treatment," Grassley said. "They're in critical need, and we have to help them recover their good health without building a lifetime of debt."