On March 28, the House approved, by voice vote, a bill (H.R. 1132) sponsored by Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) to reauthorize the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program (NBCCEDP). The Senate approved the measure on March 29 by unanimous consent. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the measure on March 15; the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved an identical measure (S. 624) on March 14 (see The Source, 3/16/07).
The Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-354) established the NBCCEDP at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The program provides cervical cancer screenings for low-income women aged 18-64 and breast cancer screening, including mammograms, for low-income women aged 40-64.
The bill would authorize $225 million for FY2008, $245 million for FY2009, $250 million for FY2010, $255 million for FY2011, and $275 million for FY2012. The bill also would create a five-year, five-state demonstration project that would allow states to apply for a waiver of current program rules. The waiver would allow states to spend a greater portion of their federal funds on education and outreach to underserved women. Rep. Baldwin said, “This important program provides breast and cervical cancer screening to low-income, uninsured women who otherwise would have little or no access to such care. Early detection is a woman’s most powerful weapon against breast or cervical cancer because early detection, followed by early treatment intervention, greatly increases a woman’s odds of beating cancer; and we know that our vigilance is having results as this is the second straight year of declining cancer deaths…This reauthorization will strengthen this important program by increasing the program’s authorization level. At its current $205 million funding level, it is estimated that the program only provides services to 20 percent of all eligible women in the United States. This additional authorization would enable the program to provide 147,000 more screenings per year. In addition, it will assist rural communities and special populations by permitting a five-state demonstration program for states to receive a time-limited waiver of current regulatory requirements in order to provide greater emphasis on education and outreach, while ensuring that women continue to have access to life-saving screening services.”
“As a breast cancer survivor, I know how scary it is to hear those words, ‘You have cancer.’ I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be told, ‘But I’m sorry, I can’t help,’” said Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC). She continued, “We all know prevention is the most cost-effective way to fight the war on cancer, and this screening program saves money by detecting those cancers early and steering women towards treatment options. It is also, unfortunately, estimated that less than 20 percent of the eligible women in the country are served by the program; and so the bill today provides for enhanced preventive efforts and includes a structured limited waiver demonstration project through the Department of Health and Human Services to improve flexibility. States that can prove that they can increase the number of women served may apply to use the higher percentage of their federal funding for outreach, education, medical training and other services. So, hopefully, some of the most vulnerable women will be reached.”
During Senate consideration, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said, “I rise today to applaud the passage of H.R. 1132, the Breast and Cervical Cancer Reauthorization Act of 2007, a program that the Senator from Texas, Mrs. [Kay Bailey] Hutchison [R-TX], and I have worked closely to reauthorize…This legislation authorizes the establishment of a waiver demonstration project that will allow states to leverage non-federal funds for breast and cervical cancer screening and follow-up services, reduce barriers to screening, and increase the number of women served. Non-federal funds for breast and cervical cancer services [and] activities are available in some states through state or local government sources and private sources. Leveraging these non-federal funds will augment limited available federal funding and thus enable the efficient and effective utilization of resources to provide education and outreach to screen more women. It is Congress’s intent that the secretary [of Health and Human Services], acting through the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], will administer the described demonstration project as part of its overall management of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Program.”
Sen. Hutchison said, “Early detection of breast and cervical cancers saves lives and is essential to our fight against these devastating diseases. The national early detection program has given millions of disadvantaged women access to vitally important cancer screenings, and I am proud of our commitment to continuing the federal investment in these services. I hope that the new waiver demonstration project will provide the small number of states seeking to fully leverage private contributions the ability to capitalize on those funds [and] expand access and services to even more women. I also look forward to the information CDC gathers in its report to help guide us in ensuring we provide the most screenings for our federal investment. I thank my colleagues for working with us to expand this important program in our fight to reduce the number of cancer deaths in the United States.”
