Senate Health and Welfare committee sends bill requiring coverage for supplemental breast screening to floor

Boise — The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send House Bill 134 to the Senate floor with a "do pass" recommendation after sponsors and medical specialists testified that requiring private insurers to cover supplemental breast cancer screening for high‑risk patients could improve early detection and reduce downstream costs.

Representative Brooke Green, R‑District 18, and Representative Healy, R‑District 15, co‑sponsors of the bill, told the committee the measure would require Idaho health plans that are not Medicaid or self‑insured, ERISA plans to provide coverage for supplemental screening — including breast MRI, contrast‑enhanced mammography or screening ultrasound — for people clinically identified as high risk because of genetic mutations (BRCA1/2), prior chest radiation, very dense breast tissue or other specified factors. Representative Green said the bill’s eligibility criteria are intended to limit screening to patients who clinically require the tests.

The bill’s sponsors and three medical witnesses described clinical and economic…