Budget Cuts and Privatization Deny Cancer Screenings to Kentucky Women

No, this is not because of Obamacare. This is because the austerity hysterics demanded budget cuts in the middle of a deep recession and forced the formerly effective state agency to contract out the service.

Mary Meehan at the Herald:

Once able to make appointments for breast and cervical cancer screenings at HealthFirst Bluegrass, women are now having to line up outside the clinic at 7:30 a.m. to be seen and still might not be screened that day.

Hundreds have had to seek screenings elsewhere, and some are being asked to pay $25 for what is supposed to be a free service, said Vicki Blevins, founder of Pink Connection, a Lexington-based nonprofit focused on breast cancer.

The process involves "too many hoops," Blevins said, and she fears many women will just go without the screenings, which are critical to early detection of cancer and the potential for successful treatment.

Because HealthFirst is taking women on a first-come, first-served basis and performs a limited number of procedures a day, Blevins said, "We have women go and line up and get to the door and be turned away."

There has been a dramatic change in this service since HealthFirst took over the program for the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department in July 2012, she said. Beginning in 2008, when Pink Connection was founded, Blevins worked with the health department to get poor women free breast and cervical cancer screenings through a state-funded program.

When the program was offered by the health department, appointments could be made over the phone, and the health department would follow up with patients with results and, if needed, referrals for care.

"We were so fortunate for so long," Blevins said.

No, not "fortunate." Women were receiving public services provided by a public agency, and it worked beautifully.

As soon as those services were contracted out to a private company, the program went to hell.

Who will be the first woman in Lexington to die of cancer because she was turned away for screenings by Health First?

Or rather, because the conservatards and privatizers put ideology ahead of women's lives.