Florida Senate - 2021                            (NP)    SR 1376
       
       
        
       By Senator Berman
       
       
       
       
       
       31-01244C-21                                          20211376__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution recognizing May 3, 2021, and each May 3
    3         thereafter, as “Promise Fund of Florida, Inc.,
    4         Founders Day” in Florida.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the National
    7  Cancer Act of 1971, the landmark legislation that intensified
    8  support for cancer resources, and
    9         WHEREAS, each year, breast and cervical cancer take the
   10  lives of more than 3,500 Floridians, and approximately 18,000
   11  women in this state learn they have breast or cervical cancer,
   12  and
   13         WHEREAS, when cancer is caught in its early stages,
   14  survival rates are nearly 99 percent for those diagnosed with
   15  breast cancer and nearly 95 percent for those diagnosed with
   16  cervical cancer, and
   17         WHEREAS, in Florida, 31 percent of breast cancer cases and
   18  50 percent of cervical cancer cases are diagnosed at an advanced
   19  stage, and
   20         WHEREAS, breast and cervical cancer disproportionately
   21  affect women of color, with black women experiencing a mortality
   22  rate for breast cancer that is 40 percent higher than that of
   23  white women and the highest rates of death from cervical cancer,
   24  and
   25         WHEREAS, Hispanic women are diagnosed with more late-stage
   26  breast cancer than white women and are the most likely to
   27  develop cervical cancer, and
   28         WHEREAS, the Promise Fund of Florida, Inc., is committed to
   29  health equity and building a continuum of care that navigates
   30  women to quality screening, diagnostic, and cancer services, and
   31         WHEREAS, in 2020, the Promise Fund of Florida, Inc., opened
   32  a Mammography Screening Center, accredited by the American
   33  College of Radiology, at a federally qualified health center in
   34  Palm Beach County to increase access for black and Hispanic
   35  women with limited resources to women’s health care screenings,
   36  and
   37         WHEREAS, early diagnosis of breast and cervical cancer
   38  substantially increases the likelihood of survival, yet across
   39  the nation tens of millions of women are without health
   40  insurance and cannot afford such screening, and
   41         WHEREAS, the Promise Fund of Florida, Inc., Mammography
   42  Screening Center provides screenings on a sliding-fee basis,
   43  with approximately 20 percent of those screenings leading to
   44  additional testing, and
   45         WHEREAS, 44 percent of women in this state 40 years of age
   46  or older did not receive a mammogram in the past year, and 50
   47  percent of women 18 years of age or older did not receive a Pap
   48  test, and
   49         WHEREAS, women should be encouraged to access available,
   50  affordable preventive screenings, and the financial barriers and
   51  adverse social determinants of health which impede their ability
   52  to establish a medical home for well-woman health care exams
   53  must be addressed, and
   54         WHEREAS, the Promise Fund of Florida, Inc., and its Patient
   55  Navigator Network in Palm Beach County, believe that it is of
   56  paramount importance to promote statewide breast and cervical
   57  cancer early detection screening, with the goal of reducing
   58  late-stage diagnoses, which may lead to death and suffering,
   59  NOW, THEREFORE,
   60  
   61  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   62  
   63         That May 3, 2021, and each May 3 thereafter, is recognized
   64  as “Promise Fund of Florida, Inc., Founders Day” in Florida.