President Clinton has proposed that states give full Medicaid benefits to uninsured women who have breast or cervical cancer. The president said that the 2001 budget proposal gives $220 million over five years for states to cover uninsured women screened through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. Clinton noted that over 180,002 women will develop breast or cervical cancer this year, and nearly one quarter of those women may die. The survival rate is 97 percent for cases caught early; however, that rate drops to about 21 percent if the cancer spreads.

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