Sept. 11 compensation fund to cover cancer costs

A Sept. 11 compensation fund will cover the treatment of many different kinds of cancers -- at a cost of up to $147 million -- for people exposed to toxic material during and after the attacks.

Reuters: Certain Cancers To Be Included In 9/11 Compensation Fund
A top U.S. health official approved a recommendation on Friday to include certain cancers among health conditions covered by a $4.3 billion compensation fund to help with treatment costs of people exposed to toxic material after September 11 attacks in 2001. The decision by Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, approved all of the 14 cancers recommended by the program's advisory committee (Allen, 6/8).

CQ HealthBeat: World Trade Center Health Plan Administrator Says Yes To Covering Cancer
A wide range of cancers will soon be treated under the health program Congress created in 2010 for those who became ill from living and working near Ground Zero, if a proposal filed Friday by the program's administrator becomes final. The news that World Trade Center Health Program Administrator John Howard has heeded the recommendations of his advisory committee to treat cancers of the lungs and skin, as well as many others, has been highly anticipated by those who wrote the law that created the program. Howard's decision will be finalized after a 30-day comment period (Scholtes, 6/8).

Bloomberg: Sept. 11 Cancer Victims To Get Medical Coverage From U.S.
The U.S. may spend as much as $147 million through 2016 to pay for the medical care of responders to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks who are diagnosed with breast, liver and other types of cancers. About 50 cancers will be covered by the money, which is part of a $1.5 billion federal health-care fund for rescuers, cleanup crews and others exposed to carcinogens at or near New York's World Trade Center. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the proposal in a regulatory filing yesterday, which would also cover the other Sept. 11 sites, at the Pentagon in suburban Washington and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania (Wayne, 6/9).

The Associated Press: U.S. Wants 9/11 Health Program To Include 50 Cancers
People who were stricken with cancer after being exposed to the toxic ash that exploded over Manhattan when the World Trade Center collapsed would qualify for free treatment of the disease and potentially hefty compensation payments under a rule proposed Friday by federal health officials. After months of study, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said in an administrative filing that it favored a major expansion of an existing $4.3 billion 9/11 health program to include people with 50 types of cancer, covering 14 broad categories of the disease (Caruso, 6/8).