The Problem: Mastectomy patients going flat are regularly denied insurance coverage for the services of a plastic surgeon, and cancer surgeons who spend extra time to create an aesthetic flat closure at the time of the mastectomy are frequently not reimbursed for their work.
As a result, one in four of the 50,000 patients in the USA going flat end up with egregiously poor aesthetic outcomes (see image below). That's over 12,000 patients every single year who are suffering needlessly. This happens in part because the federal law - the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act (WHCRA) - only requires insurance to cover the cost of breast reconstruction, not chest wall reconstruction (aka aesthetic flat closure).
We simply want patients going flat to have the same access to insurance coverage for necessary care that women reconstructing their breasts do.
It's about health, choice, and dignity.
A bill now in front of Congress, HR 5813, the "Women's Health and Cancer Rights Modernization Act of 2025," will fix this problem. Among other things, the bill adds chest wall reconstruction to the WHCRA's insurance coverage mandate.
Learn more at www.NotPuttingonaShirt.org/WHCRA
