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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Ohio Missing the Mark on Colorectal Cancer Screenings?

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009   

Columbus, OH – It's National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and more than 130 volunteers are gathered in Columbus today to spread an important message - that more Ohioans should have life-saving colorectal cancer screenings, and they would if their health insurance policies covered the procedures.

Colorectal cancer is preventable, treatable and often beatable, but it is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in Ohio. At the statehouse, the American Cancer Society (ACS) volunteers will discuss their support for two bills to specify that colorectal screening costs be covered by health insurance.

One of them is Anne Creech, who battled colorectal cancer eight years ago. Screenings are critical, she explains, because symptoms are usually not present in the early, more curable stages.

"I have no family history, so screenings to me are huge. Had I not noticed that spot of blood, I would've had no idea - and then, I don't know what would've happened. I'm very lucky; there are people who have died that had less than I had."

Senate Bill 64 and House Bill 56 would require insurance coverage of the full range of colorectal cancer screenings. In addition to saving lives, as Creech points out, such screenings also are cost-effective.

"Preventative care is so important, for the obvious reason of health, but just as much to save everybody a lot of money. More money is spent when cancers come and you haven't been screened for them, and they've developed to a point where they cost thousands of dollars."

According to ACS, wider use of proven screening tests can cut the death rate from colorectal cancer in half. This year, an estimated 6500 Ohioans will be diagnosed and 2500 will die from this disease.



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