New York City Mayoral Candidate Proposes Funding For Cancer Screening Vans

New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, a Democratic candidate for mayor, has proposed spending $2 million to increase the number of mobile mammography vans that provide free breast cancer screenings to uninsured women, the New York Post reports. Currently, two vans screen about 6,000 women per year. Speaking outside City Hall July 8, Hevesi proposed that the city purchase five vans; each van would be able to screen between 4,000 and 10,000 women annually. The vans cost $250,000 each and an additional $750,000 per year would be needed to operate them. Hevesi said, "This is not a huge program. This is a small amount of dollars, relative to what we can accomplish in terms of saving lives" (Topousis/Joseph, New York Post, 7/9). "Women must get regular checkups and find the disease early enough to make a difference. The best way to provide mammograms to women who aren't receiving them now is with mobile vans," he added. Mary Solomon, executive director of the Women's Outreach Network, which runs the city's two vans, said, "Language, cultural and financial barriers keep women from being screened, and if we can break down those barriers, we can get women to come out ... consistently for screenings" (Lemire/Saul, New York Daily News, 7/9).