By Forum Staff
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Howard Beach) this week marked the two-year anniversary of the enactment of a bill she sponsored that guarantees insurance coverage for all forms of post-mastectomy surgery.
Specifically, Pheffer Amato’s legislation fully authorized insurance coverage for aesthetic flat closure, a choice women can make to obtain a flat chest instead of breast reconstruction. With the enactment of Pheffer Amato’s bill, New York became the first state in the country to provide this right to women and guarantee their ability to have full autonomy over their chests.
Photo Courtesy of Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato
“This bill impacts women,” Assemblywoman Pheffer Amato said.
Aesthetic flat closure is an option for women who have had a full or partial mastectomy and wish to have a flat chest wall instead of having reconstructive surgery or breast implants. Prior to the enactment of the bill, reconstructive surgery or breast implants were covered by insurance, but the option to go flat was not. This denial of coverage, which was deemed “cosmetic,” led to women being left with pockets of skin, or flaps of skin, on their chest. Roughly 62.5 percent of women who have a mastectomy have sought to opt-out of breast reconstruction and go for the aesthetic flat closure option.
“This bill impacts women,” Pheffer Amato said. “Two years later and this type of coverage is outlined in every insurance booklet in New York State. This work has ensured a woman can make the choice on how she wants her post-mastectomy body to look! We all know someone who has been impacted by breast cancer, and this law ensures that women don’t just survive, but thrive, and feel good about their own body. This bill pays tribute to those that didn’t have a choice, and now celebrates all the women who do.”
