Idaho committee backs bill to require insurers to cover supplemental breast screening for high‑risk patients

The Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send House Bill 134 to the Senate floor with a do‑pass recommendation after hearing testimony urging private insurers to cover supplemental breast cancer screening for people at high risk.

Representatives Brooke Green (District 18) and Healy (District 15), sponsors of the bill, told the committee the measure would require private health plans (excluding Medicaid and certain self‑insured plans) to cover supplemental imaging — such as breast MRI, contrast‑enhanced mammography or whole‑breast ultrasound — for patients who meet clinical high‑risk criteria, including known BRCA1/2 mutations, prior chest radiation, or extremely dense breast tissue. Representative Green and Representative Healy said the coverage would apply only to patients who meet the bill’s specified qualifiers.

The bill’s sponsors and three clinicians told the committee that standard mammograms detect roughly 70–80% of breast cancers, while adjunct imaging can raise detection as high as about 95% for women with dense tissue or other risk factors. "Adjunct…