While great advances have been made in the battle against breast cancer, even women with health insurance are having trouble paying for these costly treatments. The fact is breast cancer treatments are draining the financial resources of women at a time when they should be focused on getting well. This part of the breast cancer story hasn’t gotten much attention yet it is of vital interest to women with breast cancer. Our survival guide provided a list of valuable resources for women to help them ease financial burdens. I was also very gratified to note that the week our story came out, the American Cancer Society launched a campaign to make cancer treatments more affordable for average Americans. So it is an important issue that is finally getting needed attention.
The other part of the story spotlighted the continuing problems in getting regular mammograms, especially for women in rural areas. What’s particularly significant is that there is a serious shortage of facilities offering digital mammograms, which studies have shown are better at spotting cancers in younger women. This section of the story also provided valuable information
on what women can do to ensure they get these life saving tests.
See the archived story and the contest questionnaire about how the story was written.