State sets aside $2 million for cancer screening
Brad Petit
Media General Columbia Bureau
Published: July 1, 2008
COLUMBIA — The fight against breast and cervical cancer in South Carolina is getting a boost, thanks to state funds that will help support a program that provides screening to low-income, uninsured women in the Palmetto State.
Lawmakers and officials announced Tuesday the allocation of $2 million for the Best Chance Network, an organization that has until now received federal funds — but not state dollars — to assist women who otherwise would have little, if any, access to early-stage cancer detection.
State Rep. Cathy Harvin, D-Summerton, said the new money should help close the treatment gap between women who can and cannot pay for health care.
“While these cancers are found evenly distributed among women of all ages, races and incomes, there has not been all-inclusive access to screening,” Harvin, a breast cancer survivor, said. “The result has been that South Carolina’s low-income women or those with little or no health insurance have been more likely to succumb to the disease. They have been more likely to die.”
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control says the state money will provide about 9,000 women with cancer screening.
In addition, DHEC said it plans to lower the minimum eligibility age from 47 to 40 by September.
The Best Chance Network is jointly implemented and coordinated by DHEC and the American Cancer Society.
DHEC Deputy Commissioner for Health Services Lisa Waddell said early cancer detection is critical in improving a person’s chances of survival, and that’s where uninsured patients are at a disadvantage.
“Underserved and low-income women … are more likely to be diagnosed late,” Waddell said. “We know there are disparities for breast and cervical cancer that are glaring and significant.”
On the whole, uninsured cancer victims are 60 percent more likely to die from the illness than patients with insurance, according to the American Cancer Society. In South Carolina alone, the group said, more than 2,500 women will be diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer this year.
The funding was announced at a news conference at Palmetto Health Comprehensive Breast Center in Columbia, and was attended by health care providers, cancer survivors and advocates.
Among them was Cathlean Kelly, a health advocate whose breast cancer was detected by an examination provided by Best Chance Network.
Kelly said the new funds will help satisfy a pressing demand.
“Where we can get more money to help (Best Chance Network) … we need it,” she said.
Harvin said that in addition to its humanitarian appeal, there are practical and economic benefits from devoting state tax dollars to cancer screening.
“We can significantly lengthen the productive work lives of those impacted,” she said. “We can substantially reduce the state’s expenditures associated with the escalating costs of care that result from late-stage cancer discovery.”
Source : www.scnow.com