CA mammogram program for low-income women halted
LOS ANGELES—California officials plan to suspend new enrollments for a program that tests low-income women for breast cancer and to tighten eligibility standards when the program reopens.
The Every Woman Counts program won’t enroll new clients from Jan. 1 until July 2, 2010, and will restrict enrollment to women over the age of 50 thereafter. Previously, women had to be 40 years old to be eligible for the program.
California Department of Public Health director Dr. Mark Horton said in a statement that declining state tobacco tax revenues and increased demand were to blame for cutbacks.
However, a chart provided by the department shows that the program received a total of $61.3 million in funding for fiscal year 2009-10, almost $10 million more than the previous fiscal year. About $55 million of the funding comes from tobacco taxes and the rest comes from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant.
Health department spokesman Al Lundeen said the increase in funding hasn’t matched the increase in costs and the current budget has a one-time budget boost, a result of an unspent past tax.
“These increases have not been enough to keep pace with the growing demand for and cost of providing breast cancer screening services,” said Horton.
This fiscal year the program expects to serve 259,000 women. It served 311,000 in the last fiscal year.
The decision to suspend enrollments was announced Dec. 2, weeks after a controversial
announcement from the government-appointed Preventive Services Task Force that said women don’t need routine mammograms until age 50.
But Lundeen said the state’s decision was purely fiscal and unrelated to the independent panel’s findings, which contradicted longtime guidelines that said women should have regular mammogram screenings after the age of 40.
Dr. Bernadine Healy, former director of the National Institutes of Health, criticized the panel’s directive, saying it would save money but not lives.
The task force’s announcement became a talking point in the national health care reform debate last month, when some members of Congress said such guidelines could lead to rationed care.
In a statement Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the health subcommittee criticized California’s decision.
“This is what I feared and warned against. The opinion of the task force should not be used as an excuse by insurance companies or others to deny mammogram coverage for women who would benefit from them,” said Pallone.
By SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER
12.08.2009
