State House bill would qualify more women for cancer screenings
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
(Harrisburg) — More low and moderate income women in Pennsylvania would benefit from a cancer screening bill approved by the state House Health Committee.
The bill would allow uninsured and underinsured women, between the age of 30 to 65, to qualify for breast or cervical cancer screenings under a program administered by the PA Department of Health.
Under current law those eligible must be between 40 and 49.
State Representative Maria Donatucci cites statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.
“The co-sponsors of this bill, and I, want to make sure that more and more of those 1 in 8 cancer warriors win that war,.. and the first battle is early detection,’ she said.
In addition, Donatucci says an estimated 8 out of every 1 thousand women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year.
The bill will be taken up by the full state House in the fall.
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