LEXINGTON, Ky. — Legislation prefiled for the 2002 Kentucky General Assembly could make things easier for many uninsured women facing breast or cervical cancer, by allowing the state to tap into a new federal program that offers money for treatment.

        Since the early 1990s, the state Department for Public Health has offered a program that allows low-income women who don't qualify for Medicaid to get mammograms and cervical-cancer tests through county health departments at little or no cost.

        But women who test positive face a struggle because the program provides no money for treatment.

        “It got to be a cruel joke,” said Victoria Meyer, breast-health coordinator at Central Baptist Hospital. “You were encouraging low-income women to come in for exams, but if you found something, you couldn't treat it.”

        Health officials say most indigent women eventually do get treatment, either through a charitable program or by “spending down” their assets until they can qualify for public assistance.

        Kentucky's Medicaid program would expand its coverage to provide treatment for indigent women who are screened through county health departments and found to have breast or cervical cancer or precancerous breast or cervical lesions that require treatment.

        That commitment would allow Kentucky to receive money from a federal program approved by Congress last year that would pay for about 80 percent of the treatment cost.

        The proposal comes when Kentucky's Medicaid program is in an economic crunch. But backers say the cost would be relatively low.

        State Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, D-Lexington, said preliminary estimates suggest the proposal would cost the state about $615,000 a year, while bringing in about $2.3 million from the federal government.

        That's based on the number of indigent women — fewer than 150 — who tested positive for breast or cervical cancer in county health departments last year.

        Mr. Scorsone is sponsoring the treatment bill in the state Senate; state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, is sponsoring the House version.

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