SACRAMENTO, Dec. 2, 2009 - Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), issued the following statement today that effective January 1, 2010, CDPH's Cancer Detection Section, Every Woman Counts program will suspend all new enrollments for breast cancer screening services until July 2, 2010, and change the eligibility age for breast cancer screening services to 50 years of age and over.
"The Every Woman Counts program is facing unprecedented fiscal challenges as a result of increasing demand for breast cancer screening services and declining state tobacco tax revenues, the primary source of funding for the program. Even though the state has redirected resources to provide short-term funding increases for the program over the past few years, these increases have not been enough to keep pace with the growing demand for and cost of providing breast cancer screening services to women in the program.
"The changes we are making are necessary to ensure that the program is administered in a fiscally responsible manner. The Every Woman Counts program is an integral part of the low-income health safety net. By making fiscally responsible programmatic changes we are working to ensure this program continues to be available to as many low-income women in California as possible."
Website: www.cdph.ca.gov
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