HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania — Surrounded by a throng of Republican and Democratic lawmakers and breast cancer survivors, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) signed his first bill as the commonwealth’s chief executive into law. It removes the costs for genetic testing as well as preventive screenings for any person at a high risk of developing breast cancer.
Bill sponsor and Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward, a breast cancer survivor and the first woman to hold the top office in the state Senate, stood at Shapiro’s right hand when the historic bill was signed Monday.
“This is not a red or a blue issue," said Ward. "It's an issue that everyone knows someone or has a loved one that has [been] touched by this, with one in eight women getting it. There's no way around that." In the last legislative session, Ward also broke the glass ceiling when she became the first female majority leader in either the Pennsylvania House or Senate.
She said she was pleased to see the bill pass unanimously through both chambers. “Even for the simplest things, that doesn’t happen in Harrisburg, but it happened for this bill,” she said, clearly emotional. “And I'm really humbled … the support of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and the governor, it is humbling and it's wonderful.”
In March, the Pennsylvania upper chamber unanimously passed Senate Bill 8, a first-in-the-nation comprehensive breast cancer screening bill that calls for the removal of out-of-pocket costs. It also mandates 100% coverage for preventive breast cancer screenings for high-risk patients.
In April, the state House also unanimously approved of S.B. 8, which will also require insurers to pay for all costs associated with a breast MRI as well as all BRCA-related genetic testing and counseling for Pennsylvanians at high risk for hereditary cancers.
Sen. Devlin Robinson, a veteran, co-sponsor, and Republican legislator from suburban Pittsburgh, said that the best-known genetic cancer testing is BRCA gene testing. Both men and women can inherit that BRCA gene mutation and Robinson has it. Anyone who carries it is more likely to develop hereditary cancer.
“Being a BRCA gene carrier myself, I saw the importance of early detection," he said. "Knowledge is power, and knowing you are afflicted with a genetic defect will help you and your doctor come up with a smarter course of therapy should you hear the news that you have cancer.”
In Pennsylvania alone, 38 women are diagnosed every day, nearly 14,000 a year, according to the PA Breast Cancer Coalition. The American Cancer Society says 13% of women will develop breast cancer in their lifetimes.
Shapiro, from the state Capitol building, told the Washington Examiner that signing this bill was very important to him. “Not just because the subject matter is critically important — it is going to help women all across Pennsylvania — but also because this is a bill run by the Republican leader, immediately passed by the Democratic House speaker, and soon to be signed into law by the Democratic governor. This is how this building's supposed to work.”
“We're supposed to see a real problem, in this case, breast cancer screening, and we're supposed to put aside the partisanship that too oftentimes slows things down and get things done,” he said.
Shapiro said it doesn't mean that people from either party have to abandon their values or principles. “I have plenty of philosophical differences from President Pro Tem Ward," he said. "She has plenty of philosophical differences with me. But we both understand that there is far more that we can find common ground on than divides us.”
Ward was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2020. “As I started my treatments and the process of everything that you go through when you have any kind of cancer, I saw things that needed to be fixed,” she said. “It was important, and I couldn't be in this position of being in the legislature, going through this and not do something about it to try to help other women, to try to help people through some experiences that I had when I was diagnosed and going through the testing."
“And I know," she added, "in a weird way, it's really an honor to be in a place that I got this terrible disease, but I'm in a place to help. I am honored that is the situation.”
