Breast cancer screening bills pass Pa. Senate that would remove cost as a deterrent

HARRISBURG — Legislation aimed at helping Pennsylvanians detect breast cancer earlier and remove cost as a barrier to women having breast cancer screenings advanced in the state Senate on Wednesday.

The two bills that accomplish these goals now move to the House of Representatives for consideration although the two-year legislative term is drawing to a close on Nov. 30 and only a few session days are scheduled before then.

Both bills passed the Senate by 49-0 votes — an achievement celebrated at an afternoon news conference outside the state Capitol by the fountain spewing pink water in observance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

“This legislation is incredibly important to women and their families all across the state,” said Pat Halpin-Murphy, president and founder of the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition, at the news conference flanked by a bipartisan group of senators. “It will be really a great leap forward for women in the state.”

A bill, authored by Sen. Bob Mensch, R-Montgomery County, eliminates out-of-pocket costs for women with dense breast tissue or other high-risk conditions to get a breast magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, and ultrasound screenings.

It builds on legislation he authored that was enacted into law in 2020 requiring insurance companies to provide coverage of ultrasound or MRIs for women with dense breast tissue who are at increased risk of breast cancer.

But that law didn’t eliminate all out-of-pocket costs, which can run into the hundreds of dollars, because those procedures are considered a screening check and not a treatment, said Halpin-Murphy, who worked with senators on drafting both bills.

This latest bill requires insurers to provide those screenings at no cost, meaning no co-pay and no deductible, as well as requires them to cover an additional MRI or ultrasound breast screening per year for women in high-risk categories.

“Typical mammogram films of dense breasts are harder to read and interpret for women with dense breasts, which makes MRI and ultrasound availability so crucial,” said Mensch, who has been a crusader for early detection of breast cancer for the past decade.

The other bill the Senate passed was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Westmoreland County. It requires health insurance companies to cover with no patient cost-sharing genetic testing and counseling for BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations for individuals with a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

“This is a screening test that everyone should have access who are at high-risk at no cost,” Halpin-Murphy said. “That’s been really the goal of the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition since we began that screening tests be provided at no cost to the women. It saves lives.”

Plus, it saves insurance companies money because early diagnosis of breast cancer is much more treatable and effective, she said.

Ward, who is a breast cancer survivor, said she had tried for years to get a BRCA test but was denied because her mother or sister didn’t have breast cancer. When her oncologist ordered one for her, she said she paid for the test, which cost several hundred dollars, out of her own pocket.

“A lot of women can’t pay for that,” Ward said. “The insurance company asked me to turn in my bill. I said I’m not going to turn in my bill. I’m gonna change the law because all women deserve to be able to know that they have a gene and be treated. This is a prevention bill.”

Individuals with a BRCA mutation are shown to have a genetic predisposition to developing breast, ovarian or prostate cancer and can monitor their health more closely, Ward said.

“It is important for families to know and for people to know if they have this gene,” ahw said, during her speech on the Senate floor prior to the vote on her bill. “If I had known I had this gene years ago, which I was trying to find out, things may have been different.”

Sen. Tina Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, shared at the news conference that having lost a sister to breast cancer and a mother with ovarian cancer, she sought a BRCA test but found out her insurance wouldn’t pay for it.

She paid $6,000 out of her pocket to have the test only to find out the results were inconclusive because the person filling out the paperwork didn’t get her full family history, she said. So now she has to have it done again.

Looking over at Ward, Tartaglione said, “This time from your legislation it will be paid for” if it gets signed into law.

Along with passing legislation, the Senate also passed a resolution declaring Thursday, Oct. 21, Mammography Day in Pennsylvania, which Halpin-Murphy said is another big push for her coalition this year.

“We’ve been on a campaign to bring attention for women to remember to get a mammogram,” she said. “During covid, 62% of the women who had gotten a mammogram in the year before didn’t get it during the covid period so we’re on a campaign to tell women: Don’t miss your mammogram.”