[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 24, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H3759-H3760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               BREAST CANCER PATIENT PROTECT ACT OF 2009

  (Ms. DeLAURO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. DeLAURO. An estimated 184,000 cases of invasive breast cancer 
were diagnosed last year. I rise today in support of every breast 
cancer patient who has ever undergone a mastectomy and then been told 
by her insurance company that she has to leave the hospital in 24 hours 
or less before she has had time to recover.
  I'm reintroducing the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act today. 
It's a bipartisan bill that overwhelmingly passed this House last year 
by a vote of 421-2. Simply, it ensures that after breast cancer 
surgery, a woman will have 48 hours to recuperate in the hospital, no 
matter which State she lives

[[Page H3760]]

in or what insurance coverage she has. It does not mandate that the 
patient has to stay in the hospital for 48 hours, but the decision 
should be made by patient and doctor and not by an insurance company.
  A Lifetime TV petition has been signed more than 23 million times, 
with people directing their stories to their Web site. We have 
information from 50 States.
  The last thing any woman should do at this time is to fight with her 
insurance company. This should not be negotiable. Ultimately, that 
decision should be up to the patient and her doctor.
  Before this session of Congress is over, we must take Federal action 
and pass the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act into law, and take 
away this barrier to quality breast cancer care.

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