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Clinton proposes public health coverage for poor

WASHINGTON: President Bill Clinton proposed that poor women whose breast or cervical cancers are detected by government screening programmes be eligible for public health benefits to help pay for their treatment.

The aim was to "eliminate the barriers low-income women face to getting treatment for breast and cervical cancer," Clinton said in his weekly radio address.

He said the measure was in the budget for the fiscal year 2001, which he was to present to Congress on Monday. It would "allow states to provide full Medicaid benefits to uninsured women whose cancers are detected through federally funded screening programmes."

Clinton noted that one in eight women in the United States will have breast cancer at some stage in their lives, but new therapies are changing their treatment, with researchers now experimenting with gene therapies.

"And Vice President Al Gore has led us to make a dramatic increase in out commitment to cancer research and treatment," he added.

However, he said, "these life saving new therapies can only help if patients have insurance or other resources that enable them to afford state-of-the-art treatment, or any treatment at all."

The proposal, which he said had strong bipartisan support in congress, included measures to channel more state and federal funding into cancer screening and outreach to women at risk, he added. AFP