A huge win for flat advocacy! Our work, and YOUR work, has paid off!
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) has just sponsored a bill to amend the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act! This amendment includes the exact words that NPOAS has been petitioning for years – “and chest wall reconstruction.”
NPOAS has been working on our own legislative initiative since 2021, building a coalition of like minded organizations and circulating a petition for the general public to support the initiative. And Stand Tall AFC has taken up the banner as well, promoting the petition at breast cancer walks nationwide for the past two years. We are thrilled to see ASPS include our amendment in this landmark legislation!
House Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL-3) has just this past week introduced H.R.5813 – Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Modernization Act of 2025. It has been referred to the following three committees: Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, & Education and Workforce. This bipartisan bill already has eleven cosponsors as of the date of this publication:
Everywhere the bill mandates insurance coverage for breast reconstruction, it also mandates coverage for chest wall reconstruction. Additionally, the bill specifies that chest wall reconstruction includes flat closure:
The result of this bill, if and when it passes, should be that women who go flat (about 50,000 people per year by our calculations) will be able to access reconstructive surgical services just like their sisters who choose to reconstruct their breasts. More of these patients will be able to have a plastic surgeon at their initial surgery. And if they do get a poor aesthetic outcome initially – that’s about 12,500 patients per year – they will be able to get it fixed. Patient autonomy will be better supported, and outcomes will improve. Patients seeking aesthetic flat closure after explanting their breast implant reconstruction also won’t have to fight their insurance companies in order to get an aesthetic outcome they can live with.
Note: the language in the bill is currently in the process of being amended to ensure coverage for previvors (prophylactic/preventative mastectomy).
We applaud ASPS and the sponsors of H.R.5813 and are excited to see the bill progress and ultimately become law!
