House Insurance Committee approves bill to require insurers to cover diagnostic breast exams with no cost sharing

Chair (House Insurance Committee) called the House Insurance Committee to order and moved consideration of House Bill 433, which the panel approved 26-0 after adopting a technical amendment.

House Bill 433 would amend the insurance company law to require health insurers to provide medically necessary coverage of diagnostic breast exams without cost sharing if an abnormality is found. Alan (staff member) told the committee that last session’s Act 1 of 2023 provided coverage of a supplemental screening for high‑risk women and that HB 433 would add diagnostic exams at no cost sharing and replace the word “woman” with “person” to include men who can also develop breast cancer.

The change to the statutory language drew limited discussion. Representative Venkat said he was “a bit torn” but supported the bill’s alignment with evidence on screening and diagnostic evaluation. Venkat also cautioned that removing cost sharing for individual patients could shift costs across the insurance pool and asked that the measure not set an undesirable precedent for future legislation.

The committee adopted Amendment A00204, which Alan described as making “technical and conforming edits.” Representative Mullins seconded both the amendment and the motion to report the bill. With no recorded opposition, the committee reported HB 433 as amended and voted to pass the measure out of committee by a tally of 26 to 0.

The committee did not specify implementation details such as effective dates, administrative guidance for insurers, or any fiscal analysis during the hearing. The record does not include a roll-call list of individual yes votes beyond the 26‑0 tally.

The bill now moves to the next stage in the legislative process where additional committees or the full House may consider it.