State lawmaker shelves proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for breast imaging
A state lawmaker in Florida has shelved a proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for breast cancer screening.
Senate Bill 1578 was slated for consideration by the full legislature after unanimously passing through three committee votes. However, bill sponsor and Democratic Sen. Tracie Davis has decided to table the matter, with the bill not expected to return this legislative session, Florida Politics reported April 28.
“I would just like to thank the members of this chamber and the chairs that heard this bill, but today I will be TP’ing it so I can work on this just a little bit more over the summer,” Davis said according to the publication.
The measure would have required Medicaid to cover mammograms and supplemental breast screenings starting at a minimum age of 25. Current state law permits women to obtain a baseline mammogram beginning at 35. However, a staff analysis highlighted several issues with the measure, which did not align with screening recommendations from the American College of Radiology.
“The bill will have an indeterminate, negative fiscal impact on state expenditures related to state employee insurance,” the Senate staff analysis noted, adding it also will affect the private sector and commercial insurers.
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Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.