Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act

decides2dream

Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure.

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, an e-mail address and zip code number.


http://www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php


Sign the Petition

Grammy-Nominated Performer Jewel Joins Lifetime, 12 Million Viewers and Bipartisan Political Leaders on Capitol Hill to Urge End of "Drive-Through" Mastectomies

In September, as part of the network's award-winning Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign, Lifetime Television and Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Jewel delivered more than 12 million petition signatures to Capitol Hill, urging Congress to pass the bipartisan Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 (S 910/HR1849). The bill would ban the practice of "drive-through" mastectomies, when women are forced to leave the hospital just hours after their surgeries and before they are ready to go home. Sign our petition now to help end "drive-through" mastectomies once and for all.

Lifetime and Jewel joined the bill's lead sponsors Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Representative Sue Kelly (R-NY), as well as Representative Jim Gerlach (R-PA) and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), several medical experts, advocates and patients, at a Capitol Hill press conference on September 20.

The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 would allow a woman and her doctor to decide whether she should recuperate for at least 48 hours in the hospital or whether she has enough support to get quality care at home following this emotionally and physically difficult surgery. It does not mandate a hospital stay. The bill is sponsored in the Senate by senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and in the House by representatives Kelly and DeLauro.

Representative DeLauro first proposed this bill in 1996, after Connecticut physician Kristin Zarfos, M.D., brought the ever-increasing practice of "drive-through" mastectomies to her attention. Lifetime joined their efforts shortly thereafter and began to collect petition signatures online at LifetimeTV.com.

Though previous versions of this legislation have stalled in committee, the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 (S 910/HR 1849) has 179 bipartisan cosponsors in the House and 17 in the Senate. With more than 12 million signatures on Lifetime's online petition and the support of the following organizations, we are making sure Congress takes notice: American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association, Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses, Families USA, Oncology Nursing Society, Society for Women's Health Research, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and Y-Me National Breast Cancer Organization.

If you support the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005, we encourage you to sign the petition below and ask your members of Congress where they stand. With the strength of our collective voices, we will not back down until "drive-through" mastectomies are a thing of the past.

decides2dream

wow. not one post. i hope at least some read it....signed...and just didn't post. it amazes me really. for all the sexually charged 'love' breasts get....they don't get much love when the women who bare em need it.

hippiemom

Thanks for bumping this, I missed it before!

I remember going to visit my mom the day she had her mastectomy. They send women home in that condition?!

If there's a single woman in the world that you love, you should be outraged about this.

Hope&Anger

decides2dream wrote:

wow. not one post. i hope at least some read it....signed...and just didn't post. it amazes me really. for all the sexually charged 'love' breasts get....they don't get much love when the women who bare em need it.

Signed it and sent it along to my senators and my congressman, asking them what they have to say about it.

Would it be tacky of me to point out that this is one of those "great ideas" brought to us by insurance companies?

decides2dream

Hope&Anger wrote:

Would it be tacky of me to point out that this is one of those "great ideas" brought to us by insurance companies?

tacky? not at all. it's utterly tragic and reprehensible that such a 'great idea' ever saw the light of day, and was put into practice. fuckers.

hippiemom wrote:

If there's a single woman in the world that you love, you should be outraged about this.

EXACTLY.

Bu2

I had no idea that some women were sent home right after a masectomy. I simply can't fathom the idea.

My little sister, 37, was just diagnosed with breast cancer and she had a lumpectomy. It was a same-day procedure, but she didn't lose the entire breast and she had a good husband to go home with, who took care of her. He's helping her through the chemo as well.

But for those women who undergo more than my little sister did, I would hope and pray that they are given the time in the hospital that they need. Surgery is so invasive, so scary, and draining. I'm really shocked that such a petition would even have to be made. Thank you for opening my eyes. I'm sharing this with all my female friends and coworkers.

ryan198

Great post ... I know I've been repping it hard the last few days but get Samantha King's Breast Cancer Inc. this isn't the only way companies that claim they care about breast cancer are screwing people over.

cincybearcat

I don't know enough about the procedure and recovery to sign right now...but I'll look into it.

decides2dream

cincybearcat wrote:

I don't know enough about the procedure and recovery to sign right now...but I'll look into it.

i am unsure just exactly how much more one 'needs to know'....but i do hope you look into it, and more sign.

if you know what a mastectomy is, i would think you'd know enough. a woman undergoing surgery to have one or both of her breasts removed - which is a fairly invasive procedure. that's it. as far as recovery, i am no doctor...but nor are insurance execs...the ones making these decisions, so yea, i think it's best to let a patient's DOCTOR decide if she needs more than a couple hours after surgery before they pack her up and send her home...and just make sure that insurance allows the OPTION, at a physicians request, to allow a patient UP to 48 hours of hospital stay, if necessary.


"The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2005 would allow a woman and her doctor to decide whether she should recuperate for at least 48 hours in the hospital or whether she has enough support to get quality care at home following this emotionally and physically difficult surgery. It does not mandate a hospital stay."

hippiemom wrote:

If there's a single woman in the world that you love, you should be outraged about this.

*edit - Bu2. hmmm, we are on opposite sides of the same coin. i am 37, soon 38...and my sister, now 42, was diagnosed with breast cancer at 40. luckily, they caught it VERY early, she underwent a lumpectomy and radiation...she was spared chemo. and yes, same thing...she did go home the same day, had a husband at home to care for her...and it WAS physically/emotionally draining....and that's no mastectomy! anyway, so 2 years this december, cancer-free. i hope BOTH our sisters remain in excellent health.

wolfbear

Signed. Your package is on it's way. Thanks.

cincybearcat

decides2dream wrote:

i am unsure just exactly how much more one 'needs to know'....but i do hope you look into it, and more sign.

if you know what a mastectomy is, i would think you'd know enough. a woman undergoing surgery to have one or both of her breasts removed - which is a fairly invasive procedure. that's it. as far as recovery, i am no doctor...but nor are insurance execs...the ones making these decisions, so yea, i think it's best to let a patient's DOCTOR decide if she needs more than a couple hours after surgery before they pack her up and send her home...and just make sure that insurance allows the OPTION, at a physicians request, to allow a patient UP to 48 hours of hospital stay, if necessary.

What more I need to know? Perhaps more about specifics of the surgery and recovery times, etc. I'm not going ot jump into supporting anything from one post on a message board.

Like you said, I'm no doctor, so I wanted to look into it more. I dislike insurance companies for a lot of things, but not everything they say and do is awful. Think of the $ that could be saved if idiots stopped going to the Doctor everytime they got a head cold. Wanting to know more and be more informed before signing your name to something is hardly a bad thing.

cincybearcat

Oh, by the way, I did look into it and did sign it.

soulsinging

do online petitions matter? does anyone read or care about them?

not that im trying to trivialize this, the idea is reprehensible. im just curious. i always feel like signing an online petition is a waste of time becos nobody gives them any regard.

hippiemom

soulsinging wrote:

do online petitions matter? does anyone read or care about them?

not that im trying to trivialize this, the idea is reprehensible. im just curious. i always feel like signing an online petition is a waste of time becos nobody gives them any regard.

No, I don't think they matter. I think they're used mainly to generate mailing lists for the organizations that drafted the petition. Every one I've ever signed has resulted in a flood of subsequent emails.

I don't sign them any more, I write letters, or if I'm really pressed for time I'll send an email directly to my representatives.

decides2dream

cincybearcat wrote:

What more I need to know? Perhaps more about specifics of the surgery and recovery times, etc. I'm not going ot jump into supporting anything from one post on a message board.

Like you said, I'm no doctor, so I wanted to look into it more. I dislike insurance companies for a lot of things, but not everything they say and do is awful. Think of the $ that could be saved if idiots stopped going to the Doctor everytime they got a head cold. Wanting to know more and be more informed before signing your name to something is hardly a bad thing.

well, i certainly didn't mean to insinuate that you should support anything based on a post here. it was more about i personally don't think *I* need to know the specifics of the surgery and recovery times...for an effort that simply is based on....allowing DOCTORS to judge if/when a patient needs more time to recuperate in a hospital. no matter how much i read up on it, i can form an opinion sure...but again, as i am not a doctor...i think in ANY instance it SHOULD be left to the doctor's discretion if he/she believes a patient needs more time to recuperate in a hospital environment.....that was all.

in NO instance do i think insurance companies should dictate such things, they are not doctors...they don't know an individuals exact history, how the surgery went, any complications, issues, home care, etc. i do not want an insurance company to dictate from the get-go what must be done in such instances. thus why, no matter what surgical procedure...i would ALWAYS be in support of such decisions being left in doctor's care/judgement. that's it.

in regards to your last statement...i actually disagree. most people do NOT go in to see their doctors often enough for preventative care...like for a 'silly head cold'...and instead wait until things are bad. it's known that preventative care is the best, and in the long run...SAVES far more $$$ than it wastes...b/c IF patients go in to see their doctors regularly...for full exams and/or when there are small problems, a doctor then has more time/opportunity to assess their overall health...and more apt to catch small problems before they snowball into larger, possibly life-threatening...and expensive problems.

so yea, i am just far in favor of leaving medical decisions up to the patients and medical professionals...rather than a beaurocrat who has no idea about an individual's health situation.


btw - glad you found the info you wanted/needed...and in the end, you thought it was worthy of support.


in regards to online petitions 'doing anything'...i don't know. all i do think is, it can't hurt. perhaps it at least gets the issue some attention, and that's a start.