There may be help paying for screenings
Reported June 02, 2009
Women tend to put their own health last, caring for their families and their home first.
Add the current economic situation, and the cost of some health care screenings becomes even more a barrier to uninsured women.
But the Montana Breast and Cervical Health Program can help ease the financial burden of those choices.
MBCHP, part of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, can help pay for breast cancer screening for women ages 40 to 64 and cervical cancer screening for women ages 30 to 64. The screening tests would normally cost a woman about $200.
Participants must be uninsured or underinsured and meet income eligibility requirements. A lack of insurance shouldn’t keep any woman from being screened for cervical or breast cancer.
MBCHP serves all 56 Montana counties, the seven Indian reservations and five Urban Indian Centers and the Little Shell Band of Chippewa.
The Montana American Indian Screening Initiative began in 2000. The Indian reservations and Urban Indian Centers work in partnership with the MBCHP administrative sites to increase breast and cervical health screening services to Native American women.
To help with outreach in Indian Country, the Montana American Indian Women’s Health Coalition was formed. MAIWHC consists of women representing all the tribes in Montana who work at a grassroots level within their community to educate women about the importance of breast and cervical screenings.
“Having access to the Montana Breast and Cervical Health Program offers American Indian women the opportunity to be screened for breast and cervical cancer,” said Charlotte Kelley, MBCHP American Indian screening coordinator. “We tell all the women we serve that this screening could save their lives.”
Since the program’s inception in October 1996, 27,685 mammograms and 19,894 pap tests have been provided.
This is a comprehensive program. No woman should find out she has cancer and then not have the means to receive treatment. By going through MBCHP, if a cancer is detected, the Montana Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Program provides basic Medicaid benefits to eligible women in need of treatment for breast or cervical cancer as well as pre-cancerous conditions.
Breast and cervical cancers can be treated more successfully when detected early, which is why mammograms and pap tests are so important. Regular cervical and breast screenings save lives and provide peace of mind.