10 months ago
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Poor women seeking free cancer screenings are being turned away in some parts of New York state because this year's budget crunch has forced a $3.5 million cut to a program providing them. The American Cancer Society says providers offering free screenings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, West Queens, and Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties project they'll perform nearly 15,000 fewer mammograms this fiscal year than last year. The state Department of Health attributes the decrease in testing to a change from the Centers for Disease Control requiring states to provide 85 percent of their mammogram screenings to women between the ages of 50 and 64 to get federal funding. In previous years women between ages 18 and 49 had the same access to the test.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
