Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and U.S. Representatives Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT) and Joe Barton (R-TX) renewed their effort to end drive-through mastectomies by reintroducing The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act. The legislation will help to ensure that breast cancer patients have access to appropriate care by allowing a woman and her doctor to decide whether she should recuperate from a mastectomy or lumpectomy in the hospital for up to 48 hours or whether she has enough support to get quality care at home.

According to the American Cancer Society, in 2008 an estimated 182,460 new cases of invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in women, and an estimated 1,990 invasive breast cancer cases were diagnosed in men, most of whom will undergo some type of surgical treatment, which may involve a lumpectomy or mastectomy.

The legislation, which overwhelmingly passed the House in the 110th Congress (421-2), is being introduced with 202 original bipartisan cosponsors in the House and 10 cosponsors in the Senate. Additionally, a petition at myLifetime.com calling for passage of the bill has been signed nearly 23 million times. It is also supported by high profile organizations, including Susan G. Komen, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Cancer Society.

“For far too long, a breast cancer diagnosis has meant uncertainty and fear for too many women, yet current standards of health care coverage have failed to do enough to ease that fear,” said Senator Olympia Snowe. “At some point in their lives, nearly every American will have a family member or friend who must battle breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act creates a set of crucial measures to ensure appropriate treatment and reasonable in-patient care for women who undergo invasive treatment for breast cancer. Confronting breast cancer should be done with compassion, care, and reassurance in making the best choices about her treatment.”

“It is dangerous for insurance companies to decide when patients are released from the hospital following a mastectomy,” Senator Landrieu said. “This procedure requires significant medical care and attention, and the decision to check out of the hospital should be that of the patient, her family and her doctor. The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act will ensure women have the appropriate amount of time to recover from this traumatic experience. Ending the practice of drive-through mastectomies is long overdue, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to get this bill to the President’s desk.”

“Everyone knows someone who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and that it is not just physically traumatic, but emotionally traumatic as well. The last thing a breast cancer patient needs when undergoing major surgery is to fight with an insurance company about a hospital stay. That is what the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act is all about,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “It says that when it comes to mastectomies and lumpectomies, adequate recovery time in the hospital should not be negotiable. It simply ensures that any decision in favor of a shorter or longer hospital stay will be made by the patient and her doctor, and not an insurance company.”

“My involvement in this legislation began after a visit from a brave woman whose mastectomy was postponed because she accidentally failed to list an unrelated medical condition on her application. Her cancer spread while she waited for treatment. I was immediately sympathetic because my sister is a breast cancer survivor,” said Congressman Barton.

“While helping this woman I quickly realized her case wasn’t an isolated incident – it was part of a bigger problem,” Rep. Barton added. “You pay insurance companies to provide a service. They should not be able to use loopholes to avoid that commitment. It is an unethical practice that puts lives in danger and it must stop. So included in the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act is a provision that protects people seeking treatment for a serious illness from losing coverage because they accidentally fail to reveal a prior unrelated condition. Insurance companies will have the ability to investigate possible fraud, but patients also have the right to appeal any cancellation to an independent third party and receive continuing coverage during that appeal.”