Coverage for cancer treatment extended to poor women in US

The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that will provide medical coverage to women on low incomes seeking treatment for breast and cervical cancer.

The bill, which would become the Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment Act, still has to be passed by the Senate. It drew widespread bipartisan support and was passed by the House with a vote of 421-1. It grew out of the recognition that federally financed breast and cervical cancer screening programmes for poor women were available but that if these cancers were diagnosed, no coverage was provided …