A disease-specific Medicaid expansion for women. The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000.
The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000 (BCCPTA) allows states the option of extending Medicaid eligibility to women diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through a large federal screening program that does not include resources for treatment. Using qualitative data from interviews with 22 key informants and other sources, we present an analysis of the history and passage of the BCCPTA as a policy response to a perceived "treatment gap" in a national screening program. The results suggest that organizational policy entrepreneurs-primarily the National Breast Cancer Coalition-constructed an effective problem definition (that the government screening program was "unethical" and "broken") with a viable policy solution (an optional disease-specific Medicaid expansion), and pushed this proposal through a policy window opened by a budget surplus and an election year in which women's health issues had broad bipartisan appeal.
Lantz
Paula M
PM
Department of Health Management and Policy, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. plantz@umich.edu
Weisman
Carol S
CS
Itani
Zena
Z
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004608:Eligibility Determination / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D008484:Medicaid / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000191:economics; D011050:Policy Making; D011057:Politics; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000191:economics; D013221:State Health Plans / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014932:Women's Health Services / Q000191:economics*