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Cancer screening program expands to include more women

Posted January 15, 2008 10:00 pm

Meagan Sexton

Uninsured women in Sangamon and Menard counties are now able to get free breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings at the Sangamon County Department of Public Health.

The department has been added to a list of agencies working with the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program to ensure quality care for uninsured women across the state.

"By adding a new lead agency, we will help women access services closer to their communities while also helping to increase the capacity of our program in central Illinois," Damon Arnold, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said a press conference Tuesday.

Since Jan 1, nine agencies in northern and central Illinois have joined the state's efforts to increase access to free screenings. Women from all over the state can seek screenings and treatment at these facilities.

Before the Sangamon County department made the free screenings available, Logan County was the closest place in the area to receive such services.

Julie Mawrer, breast care program facilitator for St. John's Hospital, said the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer program has helped change lives.

"One lady in particular had a really suspicious lesion, and I tried to set her up for a biopsy and she said, 'I don't have any insurance, I don't have any money.' I finally said, 'Let me get you in this program, we'll do the biopsy,'" Mawrer said. "So I got her in the program. Unfortunately, her biopsy was positive, and she was able to get further treatment and surgery from the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program."

IDPH statistics show that 8,604 women in Illinois were diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer in 2003. That same year, 2,057 women died from one of those diseases. The IDPH estimates that almost 9,000 women will be diagnosed this year, and approximately 1,700 will die.

"Death from cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable," Arnold said. "To have women needlessly die from a disease is unimaginable."

Illinois is the first state in the nation to provide access for all uninsured women who need breast and cervical cancer screenings and treatment. This expansion makes more than 260,000 additional women eligible, the IDPH stated in a press release.

The Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program has received almost $11 million in federal and state aid. Out of those funds, the Sangamon County health department will get slightly above $85,000 for this fiscal year. If the department's caseload goes over 200, more funding can be applied for.

"The amount of money you are losing from this person losing work, the children who are left behind if it's a single parent ... the costs to our society is dramatic. If you want to add the money up ... put it this way, we're getting off easy," Arnold said of the program's cost.

Meagan Sexton can be reached at (217) 782-6882.

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