By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois is stepping up the battle against breast cancer. Private insurers and Medicaid will now have to cover diagnostic mammograms and other breast-cancer screenings.
Some describe the diagnostic mammogram, the follow-up to an annual screening for perhaps ten percent of patients, as the most important test for whether somebody has breast cancer.
“Its frequency, proper screening, and mortality vary vastly across racial and ethnic groups,” said Gov. JB Pritzker in signing the bill.
“We cannot and should not tolerate the disparities that come from institutional failures.”
“This is important, and let’s take some action,” said survivor Doris Garrett at the bill-signing. Garrett, a volunteer with the Susan G. Komen organization in Peoria, says Komen nationally is trying to get federal law to match the one Pritzker just signed.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
