As a follow up to our report on the frightening disparity in breast cancer mortality rates in “Survival of the Fittest Zip Codes”, we caught up with Rep. Greg Harris of the 13th District of Chicago, who we remembered as a man with a plan to try to rectify this ridiculous rationing of care.
His legislation, HB 5192, The Reducing Breast Cancer Disparities Act was an attempt to attack the problem with increased reimbursements, incentives and patient outreach. That bill is now law, and Rep. Harris wants to get the word out to women, as to what their options are now and what changes have been made to protect their health.
We spoke with him at his district office:
It’s rare we get to follow the legislative process to fruition, so we thought we’d hop in the Way-Back-Machine and share an excerpt from our initial interview with Rep. Harris back in Dec of 2008 on good ol’ Access Chicago.
Kudos to Rep. Harris on his work in the General Assembly on behalf of women’s health.
More info can be found at ChicagoBreastCancer.Org and KomenChicago.Org
Only when single payer becomes law of the land will every woman in Illinois and the nation have equal access to treatment and choice of doctor, regardless of income or zip code.
It’s encouraging to win these battles but we desperately need to win the war.
Posted by ilprog 
Illinois Media Progressives 