Ehrlich on Washington column, May 15, 2000

MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Road, Suite 304 Lutherville, Maryland 21093 315 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON Week of May 1 5, 2000 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. For Mothers, Wives, Sisters, and Grandmothers... This Mother’s Day, I gave to my mother, wife, and all women across the country something extraordinary. This week, my colleagues and I in the House passed the Breast Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act, designed to combat diseases that kill more than 50,000 women a year. By providing treatment for breast and cervical cancer, hopefully these numbers will be reduced. Unfortunately, one out of eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer at some point in her lifetime. It is the second most common form of cancer in the country, afflicting three million women — including one million women who do not know they have it. Breast cancer claims the lives of over 46,000 women each year, while cervical cancer takes another 4,400 lives a year. In 1 990, the Congress began the war on this disease by passing the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act. This Act authorized the Centers for Disease Control to provide critical cancer screening services to low income women. This included women with no health insurance and women who would otherwise have no access to the early detection essential for defeating these deadly diseases. The Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Act was an important first step in our campaign to ensure that all American women can fight against these pernicious forms of cancer. Through this program's auspices, more than 1 .5 million American women have sought and received cancer screenings. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program provides screening services for low-income women who have little or no health insurance. Treatment, however, is not provided. Women who earn too much to be on federal assistance, but do not earn enough to afford private insurance, are left without resources to cover the treatment they need to fight this dreaded disease. As a result, women are left to find treatment through an ad hoc patchwork of providers, volunteers, and local programs often with continued