Pa. breast cancer screening bill signed into law

Pennsylvania created a new law Monday that will require insurers to cover preventive breast and ovarian cancer screenings for high-risk women at no cost.

In doing so, the state became the first in the nation to establish such a law.

The bill was introduced by Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, R-Hempfield, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. It passed both the Democratic-controlled state House and the Republican-controlled state Senate unanimously before being signed into law by Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.

Ward said the law, Act 1 of 2023, is “not a red or blue issue, it is a pink issue,” and she encouraged other states across the country to follow Pennsylvania’s lead. She said it will eliminate high-risk individuals’ out-of-pocket costs for genetic testing for the breast cancer gene, counseling for high-risk individuals and supplemental screenings such as breast MRI and ultrasounds.

“With approximately 14,000 new cases of breast cancer per year in Pennsylvania, what this Legislature did by getting to Gov. Shapiro for his signature, will have a huge positive effect on women’s health and lives,” Ward said.

Shapiro said Act 1 will save countless lives by providing screenings to women who wouldn’t have had access to them otherwise. He said the bill was not possible without bipartisan cooperation, courage and the tenacity of Ward and Democratic Speaker Joanna McClinton.

Following Ward’s breast cancer diagnosis in 2020, she received a bill for genetic testing and was denied insurance coverage for the test, according to a news release. She said her experience navigating breast cancer treatment exposed the flaws and gaps in the process.

After tests showed she carried the breast cancer gene BRCA2, she decided to have a preventive mastectomy and hysterectomy. Ward said that if she would have known about carrying BRCA2 sooner, she might have changed the trajectory of her treatment or possibly gotten a mastectomy and hysterectomy before the diagnosis.

Ward, the first woman to hold the Senate president pro tempore position, said Act 1 is emblematic of the influence of women in the Legislature and how “female-forward policies are family-forward policies.”

McClinton, the first woman and first Black woman to sit as state House speaker, said 31% of Black women diagnosed with cancer die from breast cancer. She praised Act 1 for providing a path to increased screenings and genetic counseling.