[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 137 (Saturday, September 28, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1796]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE BREAST CANCER PATIENT PROTECTION ACT OF 1996

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                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 27, 1996

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to join with 
Representative Rosa DeLauro in introducing ``The Breast Cancer Patient 
Protection Act of 1996'' to require insurers to pay for a minimum 2-day 
hospital stay for a mastectomy and a 1-day stay for a lymph node 
removal, unless the doctor and patient decide less time is appropriate. 
The legislation responds to a recent trend by insurers who are refusing 
to pay for an overnight stay for a woman with breast cancer who has had 
a mastectomy, the surgical removal of a breast, unless the doctor can 
prove it is ``medically necessary.''
  While medical societies have no established guidelines on how long a 
woman should stay in the hospital following a mastectomy, doctors have 
argued that women need to stay 1 to 2 nights after such surgery. 
Surgeons have told me that the large majority of women would not do 
well going home the same day after such a surgery. It is unbelievable 
to me that the insurance industry is now considering mastectomy an 
``outpatient procedure'' and denying women overnight stays.
  After a mastectomy, a women has a large wound, still-attached 
drainage tubes and intravenous fluids, and, often times, excessive 
pain. Overnight stays allow doctors to address many of the problems 
that can arise in the 12 to 24 hours following surgery and allow women 
the time to learn how to care for the wound, handle the paint that 
accompanies such surgery and recover from the emotional trauma that can 
result from the surgery.
  Outpatient mastectomies are disturbing new part of a growing trend in 
the insurance industry to deny care or truncate stays. First they 
denied insurance to victims of domestic violence, then they sent 
mothers and their newborn home within hours following a birth and now 
women with breast cancer are being denied the ability to have a very 
difficult surgery with some degree of dignity.
  I have played an active role in ensuring that victims of domestic 
violence are no longer discriminated against in the health insurance 
industry and in guaranteeing that mothers and newborns are not sent 
home before they are ready to go. To that end, I will remain steadfast 
in my commitment to protect breast cancer patients from premature 
discharges from the hospital.
  I am pleased that the National Breast Cancer Coalition has given its 
support to ``The Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 1996.'' I look 
forward to working together with the Breast Cancer Coalition, surgeons 
and medical societies to protect safe and appropriate care for cancer 
survivors.
  The truth of the matter is that insurance companies are trampling on 
the sacred doctor-patient relationship and it must stop. The decision 
about when a woman should leave the hospital after a mastectomy should 
be made between the doctor and the woman, not by insurance companies 
bent on profits.
  Congress must restore the doctor-patient relationship once and for 
all, and I am doing everything I can to see that that happens. In the 
meantime, this critical measure will protect thousands of women who 
confront breast cancer surgery from being forced out of the hospital 
against their will and against the best advice of their doctor.

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