BREAST CANCER: Davis Asks HHS for Funding Help

      With thousands of California women on the verge of losing funding for breast cancer treatment, Gov. Gray Davis (D) has asked the federal government for aid, and HHS Secretary Donna Shalala may provide it, the AP/Contra Costa Times reports. Congress is considering President Clinton's proposal to expand Medicare to cover breast cancer treatment for low-income women. "The president wants to fill in the gaps," Shalala said in a recent address to University of Southern California graduate students, adding, "I think it's an appropriate role for the federal government." It will cost as much as $25 million to treat the estimated 1,700 low-income women in California diagnosed with breast cancer each year, according to the California Breast and Gynecological Cancer Treatment Task Force. The California Breast Cancer Treatment Fund, financed through philanthropic donations, has taken on that responsibility since 1996, but the fund will run out of money early next year (Thompson, 4/28).