Message from Congressman Mike Ross

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be almost 300,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States this year alone and almost 40,000 breast cancer deaths. This terrifying disease especially impacts our mothers, sisters and daughters as one out of every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. In fact, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide.

Early detection is key to fighting this disease, which is why a regular mammogram, or breast cancer screening, is the single best preventive measure to survive this disease. That’s why awareness, education and regular screenings are critical in the fight against breast cancer.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Since the program began in 1985, the rate of mammograms has more than doubled for women aged 50 or older and breast cancer deaths have declined.

This is exciting progress, but there are still women who do not take advantage of early detection at all and others who do not get mammograms at regular intervals. If all women over the age of 40 took advantage of early detection methods, the breast cancer death rates in the United States would drop by as much as 30 percent. Medical experts say the key to breast cancer screenings is that they be done routinely – once is not enough.

In the meantime, we must also remember those who are fighting this disease. In 1998, Congress passed the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998 (WHCRA), which mandated that private insurers and group health plans provide coverage for all stages of breast surgery and reconstruction for women undergoing medically-necessary breast mastectomies, or removal.

Breast cancer is bad enough, but a medically-necessary breast mastectomy is a painful, invasive and emotionally-deliberating procedure that affects a woman for the rest of her life. Following the surgery, many women need custom fabricated breast prostheses to return to as normal a life as possible. However, despite the WHCRA law, Medicare does not reimburse for this important step on the road to recovery.

In fact, breasts remain the only body part whose custom fabricated prosthetic replacement is not reimbursed by Medicare. To correct this unintended and inequitable gap in Medicare coverage for women, I’ve introduced the Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act, H.R. 2233, which would expressly provide coverage under Medicare for custom fabricated breast prostheses.

My bill will help fix this inequity for women in Medicare, help breast cancer survivors overcome the effects of this terrible disease and offer a lower-cost alternative to complete reconstructive surgery.

As a son, husband, father and as your Congressman, I am joining the fight against breast cancer. As a country, we must work together to be there for those fighting this disease and to help raise awareness, educate and support research until the one day when I know we will find a cure.