Breast and Cervical Cancer Bill Signed

WASHINGTON—President Clinton has signed the Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000 into law. The Act provides $990 million over 10 years to expand the treatment options for uninsured, low-income women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer in a nationwide program run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new law ends a situation that many physicians and patient advocates found incomprehensible. Prior to the new law, there was no federal program to treat women diagnosed through CDC’s 10-year-old National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. The Act creates a new optional Medicaid eligibility category to cover such treatment. The measure sets a federal matching formula with a ceiling of 85% and a floor of 65%. The formula varies from state to state.