Support the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act
For years, FSH has been committed to improving women's health. In January 1997, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut sponsored H.R. 135, the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 1997, in the 105th Congress. The bill sought to "amend the Public Health Service Act and Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to require that group and individual health insurance coverage and group health plans provide coverage for a minimum hospital stay for mastectomies and lymph node dissections performed for the treatment of breast cancer." Among other provisions, the proposed law mandated that the benefits of patients covered under group insurance plans not be restricted "for any hospital length of stay in connection with a mastectomy for the treatment of breast cancer to less than 48 hours."
This bill was never brought to the floor for a vote after its introduction to Congress. It was referred to various congressional committees, where it languished without action until it expired with the end of the 105th Congress. Rep. DeLauro sponsored the same bill five more times: as H.R. 116 to the 106th Congress in January 1999 (the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 1999), as H.R. 536 to the 107th Congress in February 2001 (the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2001), as H.R. 1886 to the 108th Congress in April 2003 (the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2003), as H.R. 1849 (the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005) to the 109th Congress in April 2005, and as H.R. 119 (the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007) to the 110th Congress in January 2007. In each case, the bill's fate was the same: it was referred to committees and died without being brought to a vote.
In September 2008, however, the House finally took up H.R. 758 (a revised version of the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007, which had been introduced 21 months earlier) and passed it. The bill now awaits necessary approval by the Senate before it is sent to the President for signature.
Although most efforts to see this bill passed urge supporters to affix their names to some type of petition, we believe the most effective course of action is for advocates of this legislation to contact their congressional representative(s) directly, by U.S. mail, telephone, fax, or e-mail.
However, if you are the type that likes petitions, Lifetime Television has a petition on their website. You can click here to sign.
