State Budget Ills Hinder New Cancer Treatment Plan   Faced with
an irony in current law that entitles low-income women to be
screened but not treated for breast and cervical cancer,
Congress agreed last year to let states expand Medicaid to cover
these women. But fiscal constraints threaten to keep many states
from moving ahead on the issue.  Cases like Lisa's inspired
Congress to pass the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act of
2000. Signed into law by former President Bill Clinton last
October 24, the measure gives states the option to provide
Medicaid to eligible women who have breast or cervical cancer.
If states elect to use the new option, it would fill a gap in
existing benefits for low income women that enables them to be
diagnosed but not treated. Currently, low-income women in all 50
states can get screened under the National Breast and Cervical
Cancer Early Detection Program , which is run by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But if a woman is found to
have breast or cervic