Email flier urges women to sign an online petition in favor of the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act, which would require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy
Description: Email flier
Circulating since: 2001
Status: True (Bill reintroduced in 2009)
Email example contributed by Mimi H., 05/26/07:
Mastectomy Hospital Bill in Congress
A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed in order to remove cancerous breast cells/tissue. If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.
Mastectomy Bill in Congress
It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important... please take the time and do it really quick!
Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women.
Please send this to everyone in your address book. If there was ever a time when our voices and choices should be heard, this is one of those times. If you're receiving this, it's because I think you will take the 30 seconds to go to vote on this issue and send it on to others you know who will do the same.
There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.
Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on.
PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code numb er.
http://www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/
signpetition.phpThis takes about 2 seconds. PLEASE PASS THIS ON to your friends and family, and on behalf of all women, THANKS.
Comments: First introduced by Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro in 1996 and reintroduced in every Congressional session since, the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act has never yet made it to the floor of the House for a vote, despite 10 years of ongoing effort by its political backers and an online petition campaign by Lifetime TV that has amassed over 11 million signatures. The current version of the bill, H.R. 1691, was introduced in March 2009.
The bill would require health plans to "provide coverage for a minimum hospital stay for mastectomies, lumpectomies, and lymph node dissection for the treatment of breast cancer and coverage for secondary consultations." Its sponsors say the legislation neither mandates a 48-hour hospital stay nor sets 48 hours as the maximum. It is meant to ensure that the decision will be made by the patient and her doctor, not the insurance company.
Folks who wish to show their support for the bill can add their names to Lifetime TV's online petition here. Not to be pessimistic, but history suggests that signing the petition alone won't be enough to get this legislation passed. Supporters should also consider contacting their elected representatives directly to make their opinions known.
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Sources and further reading:
Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act to Provide Patients with Better Coverage
Gloucester County Times, 25 March 2009
Last updated: 06/10/09
