Cancer screening assistance is available
Guest Commentary:
Every one of us can share a story about cancer and how it has affected us in some way.
While that’s a sad and harsh reality, it’s also the perfect reason to make a conscious choice to do something about cancer and change the way it impacts our families and our community. One of the simplest steps we all can take is to encourage the ones we love to participate in the early detection of cancer and get regular cancer screenings. Cancer screenings improve survival, decrease mortality and preserve quality of life by detecting cancer at an early stage, when treatment is more effective.
The good news is that health insurance requirements have opened the door for a larger number of individuals to receive cancer screening tests than ever before. The bad news is that not everyone has insurance to help cover lifesaving screenings, such as Pap test, mammograms and colonoscopies. Studies show that individuals who lack health insurance are more likely than their peers who are insured to be diagnosed with cancer at an advanced stage, when treatment is more extensive and expensive and both chances of survival and quality of life after diagnosis are devastatingly low.
Resources such as the Montana Cancer Screening Program, which serves Lincoln County through the Flathead City-County Health Department, exist to save lives. Women and men who meet age, income and insurance eligibility requirements can receive free breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screenings. Free screening services include mammograms, clinical breast exams, Pap tests and pelvic exams for the early detection of breast and cervical cancers and colonoscopies and stool sample tests for the early detection of colorectal cancer. Diagnostic testing is also provided for the follow-up of abnormal screening tests. If women are found to have breast or cervical cancer, the Montana Cancer Screening Program can even link them into a treatment program that fully covers treatment, whether it takes three months or five or more years.
Take action to save the people in your life; encourage them to get screened. If you are not up to date on your cancer screenings, don’t delay any longer. Early detection saves lives. Let’s create stories about cancer that say, “We caught it early, and we’re here to celebrate survival.”
For more information or to see if you qualify for the Montana Cancer Screening Program, call the Flathead City-County Health Department at (406) 751-8162 or toll free at 1-888-803-9343.
— Leslie Diede is with the Flathead City-County Health Department.