A personal experience with breast cancer led Pennsylvania Sen. Kim Ward to write legislation that she hopes other states will adopt.
Senate Bill 8 eliminates all costs associated with breast cancer-related genetic testing and counseling, and breast MRI and ultrasounds for Pennsylvanians with high-risk conditions like dense breast tissue, personal history of breast cancer, family history, genetic predisposition, or prior radiation therapy.
The legislation would eliminate co-pays for the test that searches for the BRCA gene mutations, an indicator of an elevated risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer.
“This is not a red or blue issue. It is a pink issue,” Ward said in a statement, adding that other states should follow because “Early detection saves lives.” A Republican, Ward was the first woman in Pennsylvania to serve as Senate Majority Leader previously, and she’s currently Senate President Pro Tempore.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not every woman who has a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation will get breast or ovarian cancer, but having the mutation indicates an increased risk for these cancers.
About 50 out of 100 women with a BRCA gene mutation will get breast cancer by the time they turn 70, compared to only 7 out of 100 women in the United States. About 30 out of 100 women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation will get ovarian cancer by the time they turn 70 compared to fewer than 1 out of 100 women in the United States.
Pennsylvania state Sen. Kim Ward poses with a copy of Senate Bill 8 in the Pennsylvania Senate Library in this undated photo. (Courtesy of Sen. Kim Ward)In 2020, two weeks after being elected to become Pennsylvania’s Senate Majority Leader, Ward was diagnosed with breast cancer. She postponed her mammogram during COVID and when she rescheduled, she learned she had stage 1 breast cancer. While she had a family history of breast cancer, she did not realize she also had a BRCA 2 gene mutation.
Following her diagnosis, Ward got a bill for genetic testing and was denied insurance coverage for the test. She talked about the cost of the bill publicly and her insurance company offered to cover the test, but she refused, her spokeswoman Erica Clayton Wright told The Epoch Times.
She paid the bill on her own and decided to prepare legislation to make the BRCA test accessible.
Ward underwent treatment and then learned the cancer could come back. She decided to have a double mastectomy, then a hysterectomy.
If she had known about her BRCA gene sooner, it might have changed the trajectory of her treatment.
In March, SB 8 passed unanimously in the Senate and moved to the House Insurance committee where it passed unanimously on April 24. The full House is expected to vote on the bill on April 26.
It will move Pennsylvania closer to being the first state in the nation to require coverage for 3D mammograms at no cost to women, and the first to require coverage of genetic testing and counseling and breast MRI and ultrasound at no cost to women at high risk.