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Pennsylvanians with state-regulated health insurance plans, like those sold on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, will now be able to get colon cancer screenings at no cost starting at age 45 instead of 50.
A new law passed by the Pennsylvania legislature with bipartisan support and signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro on Oct. 22 expands the minimum age eligibility for full coverage of routine screenings, which can include colonoscopies, stool test kits and blood tests.
Champions of the new law, like state Rep. Pat Gallagher, D-Philadelphia, hope that it will help more people access early screening and catch colon cancer at earlier stages.
“It’s one small step to a greater step to get people early detection,” said Gallagher, who was a lead sponsor of the bill and is a colon cancer survivor. “And I keep going back to early detection, because it is a treatable, curable cancer if detected early.”
The law takes effect in December and will apply to most state-regulated insurance plans by 2028.
The American Cancer Society updated its colon cancer screening guidelines in 2018, which recommend that screenings start at age 45 instead of 50. Disease rates among people under 50 have risen rapidly in recent years, data shows.
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, an independent panel of scientists and experts in disease prevention, made the same recommendation in 2021. Federal agencies adopted the change, which meant all private health insurance plans had to cover the screenings at no cost for eligible patients.
However, that left a gap for people with state-regulated insurance plans, who might still be charged for a screening test if they were under 50 and had no documented history of colon cancer in their family.
“If you fell into those gaps, insurance companies don’t like paying preventative maintenance,” Gallagher said.
