Additionally, with the enactment of H.B. 2219, Louisiana now requires the State Employees' Group Benefits Program to provide coverage for breast cancer screening, effective July 1, 1998. Missouri passed H.B. 129, which requires certain individual and group insurers, including HMOs and other managed health care organizations, that cover mastectomy to also provide coverage for prosthetic devices or reconstructive surgery necessary to restore symmetry resulting from the mastectomy. The law is effective January 1, 1998. Coverage is subject to the same deductible and coinsurance conditions as those applied to mastectomy. Insurers required to provide such coverage include HMOs, PPOs, and certain public employee health plans.
Coverage is subject to the same deductibles, co-insurance, and copayment as the mastectomy.
The resolution also asks the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service to implement this program to supplement the funds available for breast cancer research. A.C.R. 76 recognizes that the only effective means of protecting women against breast cancer is to make breast cancer research a priority and to fund critically needed research into the cause, cure, and prevention of breast cancer. The California legislature adopted A.C.R. 76 to heighten public awareness about breast cancer. The legislature declares the month of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. A.C.R. 76 also resolves that the public education efforts conducted during the month of October should be part of an ongoing, year-round effort to raise public awareness across the state.