The ribbon has been cut, the cake has been eaten and the pink Moet champagne has been drunk. Now that the celebration is over, state agencies are ready to enforce changes to insurance plans under a new Illinois law that mandates easier access to breast cancer treatments and screenings for low-income and minority women.

Effective immediately, insurance companies will be required to adjust their plans to meet the requirements of the bill, which is designed to improve breast cancer health care standards by covering pain medication and therapy for breast cancer patients and by eliminating co-pays and deductibles for mammograms.

The law focuses on better insurance coverage for insured women who can't afford a $10 or $15 co-pay for mammograms and cancer treatments, but it will ultimatly benefit all Illinois women.

Uninsured women are already eligible for the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program, which covers mammogram, diagnostic and other care costs.

The Illinois Department of Insurance will team up with Health and Family Services as well as the Illinois Breast and Cervical Cancer Program to make sure that companies implement these requirements in a timely manner.

“It’s been over a year now since we’ve sat down and looked at a shocking mortality report that showed that black women in Chicago were dying [of breast cancer] at a rate twice that of white women,” said Sean Tenner, Chicagoland policy representative of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation. “We decided instead of just talking about the issue, that we were going to do something about it.”

Gov. Patrick Quinn joined breast cancer survivors and advocates, Komen foundation affiliates and state representatives at a press conference Wednesday in Chicago to commemorate the March signing of the Reducing Breast Cancer Disparities Act.

“When this bill landed on my desk, it was a great honor to sign the bill on behalf of, really, the people of Illinois,” Quinn said. “And it has been said we want to make this legislation a model for our whole country. We want to make sure all of those in the United States of America get decent health care.”

Decent health care means “timely and state-of-the-art health care,” according to Dr. Janice Phillips, an oncology nurse researcher at the University of Chicago hospitals.

“You may be wondering why we need [a bill] like that,” Phillips said. “There are actually women who are diagnosed with breast cancer who do not necessarily get pain management” with their insurance coverage. Many of them can't afford it on their own.

Lawmakers and doctors pushed for the legislation along with  breast cancer survivors such as Angela Walker, 37, of Markham. She used her own experience as a patient to help legislators draft a fair bill.

“My breast cancer diagnosis opened my eyes to the entire system and now my personal story has brought a human side to the bill,” Walker said, “I want women to know that it’s a passed bill and it’s not just sitting around and it will be utilized.”

“When a woman is faced with a breast cancer diagnosis, she is already confused by confusion and fear,” she added. “She can also be blinded by her tears. This bill allows women to pursue wellness and to focus on their single sole purpose, and that is to fight their disease.”