NATIONAL:

LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FOR 2007:

PRIORITY #1

Guaranteed access to quality healthcare for all. We will not end breast cancer until all women have guaranteed access to quality health care regardless of their ability to pay.

PRIORITY #2

2. $150 million dollar appropriation for the Department of Defense (DoD) peer-reviewed Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) for fiscal year (FY) 2008.

PRIORITY #3

Passage of legislation that would authorize funding for the National Institutes of Health to research links between breast cancer and the environment – Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act.

Summary of S. 579/H.R. 1157: The Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act would establish a national strategy to study the links between the environment and breast cancer. It would authorize the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to make peer-reviewed grants to establish multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary Centers to study environmental factors that may be related to the development of breast cancer. Specifically, $40 million per year in Fiscal Years 2008-12 would be authorized for this purpose. In addition, a panel of consumers and researchers would advise the Secretary.

PRIORITY #4

Preservation of the Medicaid Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program. This Program is known as the Every Woman's Life program in Virginia.

STATEWIDE:

PRIORITIES:

• We support the goal of access to quality health care for all Virginians whose lives have been
  touched by breast cancer. In working to fulfill this goal we support state funding for Every Woman’sLife (Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program and the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program). This program provides screening and treatment for underserved, uninsured women in Virginia. This program needs more financial support from the state.
  
• We support the maintenance of the laws we have in Virginia relating to mandated insurance
  coverage and non-discrimination/privacy issues for those diagnosed with breast cancer. We also support requiring insurance policies to cover those mandates. Current laws mandate the following:

1. Insurance coverage and genetic information privacy for individuals or individuals’ children
   based on genetic testing (breast cancer genes BRAC1 and BRAC2)
   
2. Insurance coverage for mammograms
   
3. Insurance coverage for patient costs incurred during participation in clinical trials for cancer
   
4. Inability to deny health insurance to breast cancer survivors (if the insured has been free from breast cancer for a period of 5 years or more prior to the application date for coverage)
   
5. Insurance coverage for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy; and after a
   mastectomy to reestablish symmetry between the breasts
   
6. A minimum 48 hour hospital stay following a mastectomy
   
7. Insurance coverage of treatment for lymphedema