Janice Hahn: “Today, African American women with breast cancer are 40 percent more likely to die from the disease than White women. In…”

“Today, African American women with breast cancer are 40 percent more likely to die from the disease than White women. In my hometown of Los Angeles, African American women are 70 percent more likely to die from breast cancer than White women. This is tragic and shameful. I have heard heartbreaking stories of women who were not able to access screening until it was too late or who could not receive treatment because they did not have health insurance. I have introduced a resolution here in Congress to recognize this alarming disparity and to raise nationwide awareness of this crisis in our health care system. My hope is that greater awareness of this issue will help to be the impetus for action and help improve the way we treat breast cancer for all women. This is an issue of life and death, and we must do everything we can to ensure that every woman, regardless of race, has access to the quality screening and treatment she needs to fight this awful disease. The good news is that now, under the Affordable Care Act, which my colleagues on the other side said was the worst law ever written in the history of man, lifesaving mammograms are covered for women in this country, allowing them to detect breast cancer early. ____________________”