Abstract
The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act of 2000 (BCCPTA) allows
states the option of extending Medicaid eligibility to women diagnosed with breast
or cervical cancer through a large federal screening program that does not include
resources for treatment. Using qualitative data from interviews with 22 key informants
and other sources, we present an analysis of the history and passage of the BCCPTA
as a policy response to a perceived “treatment gap” in a national screening program.
The results suggest that organizational policy entrepreneurs—primarily the National
Breast Cancer Coalition—constructed an effective problem definition (that the government
screening program was “unethical” and “broken”) with a viable policy solution (an
optional disease-specific Medicaid expansion), and pushed this proposal through a
policy window opened by a budget surplus and an election year in which women’s health
issues had broad bipartisan appeal.
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
March 19,
2003
Received in revised form:
March 11,
2003
Received:
December 17,
2002
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 The Jacob's Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
