It’s one of the best-known insights about breast cancer: Early detection saves lives. But many types of cancer don’t have an available screening…and for the ones that do, out-of-pocket costs can be a huge hurdle to clear, even for those with reliable health insurance.
Beloved journalist and author Hoda Kotb wants to address that. Kotb, 60, is a breast cancer survivor, a topic she discussed often as a former co-host of the TODAY show, which she stepped away from earlier this year in part to spend more time with her two young daughters.
Kotb is still finding ways to use her platform to educate, though: Earlier this week, she was in Washington, D.C. with other survivors, and representatives from both the organization Susan G. Komen and pharmaceutical company Novartis, to support the Access to Breast Cancer Diagnosis (ABCD) Act. If passed, the act would require private insurers to handle—in full—the costs associated with both diagnostic and supplemental breast imagining.
That day Kotb and Molly Guthrie, Vice President of Policy and Advocacy for Susan G. Komen, share with The Healthy by Reader’s Digest why they thought it was important to go to the nation’s capital to advocate directly as part of the Alliance for Breast Cancer Policy.
The Healthy by Reader’s Digest: Hoda and Molly, it’s so great to talk to you. Please tell us about this work.
Hoda Kotb: You want to go first, Molly?
Molly Guthrie: We’re in D.C. this week. We are joined by 200 advocates from across the country that are personally touched by breast cancer, joined together with one voice to advocate for policy that will eliminate barriers to needed imaging so that we can ensure all people have access to early diagnosis and treatment.
The Healthy: Is this a development coming out of what’s been going on with some of the recent cuts to research related to women’s health?
Molly Guthrie: We’ve actually been working on this issue for probably a decade now. Financial barriers to imaging, unfortunately, [have] been a part of the fabric of healthcare for a long time. After the passage of the Affordable Care Act, it kind of brought light to the issue a little bit more because screening mammography was at no cost, but then people were really confused why they were being charged for this other screening. So that’s when Komen started to work on addressing this issue.
Over the last decade, we’ve been working on policy at the state level. We’ve passed bills in 29 states, but have been working in Washington, D.C. across many administrations and many Congress sessions to get policy in place so that we’re removing that financial barrier to diagnostic and supplemental imaging.
The Healthy: Can you tell us a bit more about that? What’s the status of that barrier right now? The idea of barriers to healthcare for women is something we touched on a little bit in our interview with Reshma Saujani, who’s the founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First. Can you fill us in on what is the level of accessibility currently, and what do you want women to know right now?
Molly Guthrie: So, unfortunately, I would say most people are in a position where their health insurance covers the imaging that they need, but it comes with a pretty high out-of-pocket costs, and that runs across private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid. There’s a cost associated to even get to a diagnosis—we’re talking hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars out of pocket that people are having to come up with to get to a point that they’re potentially being diagnosed with breast cancer. And then you’re dealing with the effects of the cost of treatment, both financial [and] personal, and navigating from there.
We’re making progress. We’ve passed that legislation in 29 states, but that’s also why we’re here today. So just yesterday, the Access to Breast Cancer Diagnosis Act was reintroduced in the House and Senate, and this bill is a tremendous step forward that all private insurance would have to remove that patient cost for needed imaging so that we can get people to earlier diagnosis. The treatments are better on people [and] they’re also less expensive. And so that’s what we’re here advocating for today and that’s what we’re using our voices for, to demand action from Congress.
The Healthy: That’s great. Hoda, what about you? We’re so grateful you’re doing this—is this part of what you’re spending your time doing these days?
Hoda Kotb: Well, first of all, hi!
The Healthy: Hi!
Hoda Kotb: I mean, I’m a breast cancer survivor from 2007, so it’s been a cause that’s near and dear, and the early detection piece has always been a big one for me. The idea that you can get a mammogram, right, and then the doctor can say to you, “Hey, you actually need to get an ultrasound too.” And then you go to get the ultrasound and they go, “OK, you can get that, except for it’s going to cost you $1,200.” And you’re like, “But do I have cancer or not?” I mean, it seems insane that that is the state of play right now. That’s how it works. You have to pay for the second image to know what your diagnosis is. It seems almost like arcane in some ways.
You know, I came to kind of share my breast cancer story and just kind of … All the people who are here, the sea of pink, I mean, I felt right at home. And look, it’s like, you don’t want any woman … [There are] people with insurance and it’s still not covered. People who have insurance and it’s not covered by their insurance policies. So, I think this is kind of low-hanging fruit and should be something … that it elicits some change here. It matters to me because you want to help people out. There was just a beautiful woman in there who just said to me, “When you were diagnosed, my aunt got checked and she found out she had breast cancer, but now she’s here and everybody’s fine because they got checked early and they had the tools.” So, affordability does matter, obviously. I just felt like it was an important cause for me, and it matters.
Molly Guthrie: I would add: One other component of this dynamic [is] the follow-up imaging. As we learn more about breast cancer and breast density and genetics, there are people that become high risk and so they don’t need that annual screening mammogram. They need different imaging, so even to get their initial imaging, they’re being forced to pay out of pocket at the beginning of the process. So, unfortunately, is a large population of people that are directly impacted by this, including breast cancer survivors who often need diagnostic imaging as their yearly testing to make sure their cancer doesn’t come back, so we’re forcing them pay out of pocket to get this testing.
The Healthy: When we’re covering any type of cancer, which we do often, we remind our readers that there aren’t that many cancers that you can screen for. Every March for Colon Cancer Awareness month, we talk with Katie Couric because we look at what public education has done to lower the death rates related to these cancers that, as we say, if they’re caught early, they can be treated and you can go on to live a really active, healthy life. There is so much power in educating.
Hoda Kotb: Katie’s been really an advocate for people with dense breasts getting screened, and that’s kind of a big part of this too. There’s a site that’s called YourAttentionPlease.com—
The Healthy: Yes, we’ve covered that campaign!
Hoda Kotb: Yeah, it lays it out. I mean, because you want to know, people are like, “What am I supposed to do and how am I supposed to do something?” And look, who doesn’t want prevention? Who doesn’t want to have all the tests? Who doesn’t? It’s just a matter of figuring out how to make this front-and-center during this time.
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