Hughes Promotes Free Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment

HARRISBURG, May 5, 2009 — State Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Phila.) joined the PA Breast Cancer Coalition at a Capitol news conference today to publicize the state’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Program (BCCPT), which provides free breast and cervical cancer treatments to under or uninsured women.

“This is an excellent program for Pennsylvania women who may not have the adequate health insurance to cover the treatment of breast and cervical cancer,” Hughes said. “I am pleased to stand in solidarity with the PA Breast Cancer Coalition to publicize this program that many women - and many health care practitioners - may not be aware of. There is free treatment for breast and cervical cancer.”

According to the PA Breast Care Coalition:

• 25 women in Pennsylvania will be diagnosed with breast cancer today.
• Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in Pennsylvania in women between the ages of 25 and 54.
• Approximately 9,000 women in Pennsylvania are diagnosed each year with breast cancer.
• Approximately 2,000 women in Pennsylvania die each year from breast cancer.
• There are approximately 103,000 women in Pennsylvania living with breast cancer.

“We must end these dire statistics,” Hughes said. “We have been fighting and working closely with our Health Secretary and Governor Rendell on trying to deal with the issue of providing health insurance for the uninsured. It is a very difficult problem and has been a very difficult journey the last six years of this administration trying to make progress on that issue.

“But we still have an environment where there are over one million Pennsylvanians without health insurance and that is a travesty,” Hughes continued. “That is probably the number one reason there are so many women in Pennsylvania who are blocked from or perceive that they do not have access to treatment because they do not have health insurance.

“What we want to do and what we have been working with the coalition, the Secretary of Health, and the governor to do is to provide other avenues to access care. This program is one of those avenues.”

The BCCPT program is administered through the state Department of Welfare. Eligible participants receive treatment through Medicaid funding. Approximately 3,000 women have received treatment through this program.

Hughes is urging all women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer and need free treatment to call the state Department of Health’s Healthy Woman program at 1-800-215-7494.

To be eligible for this FREE treatment, you must:

• Be underinsured or uninsured
• Be a woman residing in Pennsylvania who is a U.S. citizen or an eligible alien
• Be under the age 65
• Meet applicable income guidelines

For more information visit the PA Breast Cancer Coalition at www.pabreastcancer.org or 1-800-377-8828.

To further publicize this critical medical treatment program, Hughes will once again partner with the PA Breast Cancer Coalition to sponsor "You're Covered -A Day of Celebration and Information about FREE Breast Cancer Treatment" on Saturday, June 13, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Park Towne West Shopping Plaza, 51st St. & Columbia Ave., Philadelphia. For more information, call Hughes’ district office at 215-879-7777.

# # #