Cancer Screening Cut Back Cuts Force Program To Stop Receiving New Women Patients

Washington state won’t screen new low-income patients for breast or cervical cancer after Jan. 1.

The state doesn’t have enough money, Department of Health officials said Friday.

The change could affect more than 450 women in Spokane County, according to Monica Walters, YWCA executive director. Without early detection, the survival rate for women with cancer decreases.

“It’s absolutely unforgivable,” Walters said. “Women’s lives depend on (the program).

“What do we say to a 50-year-old single mother of five children with low income and no insurance? What do we say to this woman who has to buy groceries and pay the rent?”

Spokane’s cancer-screening program is coordinated by the Spokane Regional Health District, which works closely with the YWCA. The district’s $70,000 annual budget will be slashed to $26,000, said Linda Jackson, the program supervisor.

Washington will receive $3.2 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its 1998 Breast and Cervical Health Program, said Lincoln Weaver, director of the state Office of Community Wellness and Prevention.

That’s about $500,000 less than last year, said Louise Galaska, deputy director of the CDC’s division of cancer prevention and control.

The federal government has offered the state about $2.8 million a year since 1994 for its breast and cervical cancer program. But the state didn’t use all that money each year. In the past, the state got to add any remaining cash to the new year’s funding.

With an estimated $1.5 million year-end balance this year, state officials assumed they could use the money in 1998 to cover the cost of screening increasing numbers of women.

They were wrong.

Last summer, the CDC changed the formula. As a result, federal officials combined Washington’s $1.5 million in unspent funds with $1.7 million in new money for 1998.

Because of the change, Spokane County’s Breast and Cervical Health Program will stop accepting new patients on Jan. 1.

Follow-up appointments will still be available to women already enrolled, but services to those over 64 will be discontinued. Medicare will cover services for them.

“We are really devastated by the changes because we know the need is there,” said Dr. Kim Thorburn, director of the health district.

Without the free service, a mammogram and screening would cost most women about $300.

Low-income women without insurance can’t afford that, Walters said. “There is no excuse to dropping the ball on women’s health.”

Said Weaver of the Health Department: “We really didn’t get adequate warning that this was what was going to happen.”

The Breast and Cervical Health Program in Spokane County has enrolled about 800 women since October 1995. About 17 percent of them needed follow-up work, such as breast ultrasounds or cervical biopsy.

The county has since identified nine cases of breast cancer, three of cervical cancer, one of uterine cancer and one of ovarian cancer.

The program doesn’t just save lives, Jackson said. It also saves money in the long run. The earlier the screening, the simpler the diagnosis and treatment.

, DataTimes