PRESENTATION

“HOW TO DETECT AND PREVENT BREAST CANCER
AND OTHER HEALTH RELATED ISSUES”

ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
AT
THE HAMILTON AUDITORIUM
OUTPATIENT SERVICES BUILDING
HAMILTON, NEW JERSEY

MARCH 29, 2004

10:00 A.M. – NOON

Good morning! Assemblywoman Greenstein, distinguished representatives of the Robert Wood Johnson university hospital at Hamilton, sisters, colleagues and friends. Let me begin by expressing my appreciation for the efforts of the staff of Robert Wood Johnson hospital in Hamilton who made this very important meeting possible.

I also would like to thank you all for coming today to learn not only how to protect our own health and that of our families, but, we hope, to become part of the solution to new jersey’s alarming statistics in respect to cancer detection and prevention. We will also be talking today about how we can better protect the underserved state populations that currently have inadequate access to high-quality cancer prevention, screening and rehabilitation services.

As you know, I am a member of governor McGreevey’s cabinet. After he was elected, he became aware of the terrible scourge of cancer in New Jersey and determined to seek solutions that could result in the early diagnosis and treatment that can make such a difference in survival after diagnosis. He also realized that one of the most serious problems in respect to early diagnosis was the lack of medical services for underserved populations including both uninsured and underinsured people.

Of the uninsured in New Jersey, 12 percent are white; 20 percent are black; 35 percent are Hispanic; and 21 percent are classified as “other”.

From my personal experience, I know that many Asian Indian newcomers and other immigrants are also uninsured and even more prone to the fear that cancer researchers identify, along with lack of insurance, as being the principal factor that causes women to neglect to seek early detection and diagnosis.

Certainly the medical professionals on this program are far more qualified than I to discuss the importance of early diagnosis and healthy lifestyles to combat this disease in our state and nation and will no doubt expand on the fact that breast cancer is the leading cause of death in young women ages 15 to 40, while if detected early, the 5 year survival rate for localized breast cancer is 97%.

My goal is to seek your support for the two critical health initiatives proposed by the governor to address the high mortality rate for breast cancer and all cancers among New Jersey women and men. I, along with other members of the governor’s cabinet are speaking with all the important state constituencies: community and women’s groups, labor representatives, cancer survivors and relatives, health care professionals, breast cancer and health care advocates and others committed to more equitable health care in our state.

I speak to you today to ask for your help and support for two initiatives proposed by the governor that can reduce the mortality statistics, the number of deaths from cancer in New Jersey.

The first initiative is a law to require health insurance companies to cover all annual mammograms for women of any age if recommended by their physicians. Currently, New Jersey law only requires insurance companies to cover an annual mammogram for women age 40 and older. For women with a family history of breast cancer however, many doctors recommend that they begin annual mammograms ten years prior to the age at which their sister or mother or other family member was first diagnosed. For some women, this may mean that they must start having annual mammograms as early as age 20 or earlier. Because of the high cost of mammograms, however, many women under 40 are unable to afford this potentially life-saving procedure.

It is this administration’s view that when a physician recommends the medical need for annual mammograms, health insurance companies should be required to cover the procedure for women of any age. A woman’s physician and her medical history, not insurance company discretion, should decide whether or not a woman under 40 should have a mammogram.

Currently, along with Texas, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia, New Jersey is the only state that limits the age at which there is mandatory health insurance coverage of mammograms, when the procedure is recommended by a physician. I am sure my medical colleagues on the program will discuss in greater detail the importance of early diagnosis to the five-year survival rate for cancer.

Thanks to the efforts of assemblywoman Green stein and her colleagues in the assembly, the governor’s proposal to require insurance coverage for annual mammograms for any woman whose doctor has recommended the annual test has already passed the full assembly on march 11 and is currently in the state senate where it must be voted on to become law.

With cancer diagnosis, time is not on our side. Our sisters, mothers, daughters, friends and we ourselves need your support and activities. We urge you to contact your friends, neighbors and colleagues and encourage them to urge their state senators to get this bill passed (it was a2261 in the assembly), and sent immediately to governor Mcgreevey’s desk for signing.

The second initiative we are asking you to support is governor McGreevey’s proposal in his new budget for fiscal year ‘05 (which begins on July 1, 2004) to double funding for the New Jersey education and early detection program (njceed). Started in 1996, njceed increases awareness of the risk for breast, cervical, prostate and/or colorectal cancer, and enables screening services to men and women for early detection and treatment. It provides funding to all 21 counties in New Jersey through 25 screening programs called njceed. 9,813 people were screened for breast cancer in 2003, with 86 cases of breast cancer detected.

98% of the women screened by the njceed program have no other form of insurance. Since 1996, the njceed program has performed over 52,000 mammograms for breast cancer screening on uninsured and underinsured women, and detected 403 cases of breast cancer. The number of breast cancer screenings has almost doubled each year since 1998.

Despite the success of this program, many women who are eligible for the njceed program remain unscreened due to the lack of adequate funding for the program. 10 out 25 njceed program sites anticipate that they will run out of funding before the end of the present fiscal year (June 30, 2004). Of the over 295,749 women who are potentially eligible for breast cancer screening services through the njceed program due to their low income, only 14.3% were screened between 1996 and 2004. Of the over 400,000 women who are potentially eligible for breast cancer screening through the njceed program due to a lack of insurance, only 10.5% were screened between 1996 and 2004.

The governor has been traveling the state seeking support for the increased budget for this invaluable program. If this budget initiative is adopted, 15,000 additional uninsured women and men will be able to be screened for these life threatening cancers.

Before I join you to learn from the experts from Robert Wood Johnson hospital on the most effective ways to avoid and detect cancer, I would like to ask you to join me by becoming activists on behalf of the women and girls of the state. I cited statistics earlier about who does not have health insurance in New Jersey. The numbers make clear that a total of 56 percent of new jersey’s uninsured are people of color: 35 percent Hispanic; 20 percent black; and 21 percent “other”. I assume “other” means people like me and other Asians who are currently the fastest growing population group in the state.

Many of us from these population groups do not speak english as a first language. Many of us are recent immigrants. Many of us are poor and afraid of authority figures who are not of our communities.

I am urging all of you here today to identify women from these uninsured groups (as well as the 12 percent who are white) and help them understand what you learned today about cancer detection and prevention and how they can help their friends and families by early detection and lifestyle changes.

If you know, work or are a relative of a family that can benefit from translation into their first language the important information you learned today about available services and prevention approaches, and you speak their language – Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean Russian, Italian, or any other first language of New Jersey’s many newcomer families, meet to speak with them and share the message.

If you don’t speak their language, get in touch with community groups that do. My office has a list of many of them. You can call (973) 648-2690 and request contact names and numbers. But your yellow pages are an excellent source for reaching out to specific ethnic communities that can benefit from translation. Finally, communicate with your state assembly people and senators. Tell them that the people of New Jersey need them to pass the governor’s cancer initiatives as soon as possible. The lives that can be saved will include not only our daughters, mothers, sisters, friends and – ourselves but theirs as well.

Become an advocate with me. We can and must do better to protect the health and well being of our state’s families.

I look forward to our working together for change that can benefit us all.

Thank you.

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