Ohio expanded breast cancer screening coverage. Will the nation follow?

By Brooks Sutherland / June 30, 2022

For years, Michele Young received regular mammograms and for years those mammograms showed no signs of breast cancer. 

But in 2018, Young, a Brooklyn native who is now a lawyer in Cincinnati, was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer. She was told she likely had it since 2012. 

There was a problematic gap in the system, she had learned. 

"I have dense breast, and what I did not know or understand is not only am I five times more likely (to have breast cancer) but I am also 40% more likely to have the cancer missed," Young said in an interview with The Enquirer.

Dense breast tissue affects about 1 in 10 women, according to the Mayo Clinic. Just over 40% of women aged 40 and over have dense breast tissue show up on mammograms making it harder to detect cancer. And in Ohio, many additional screenings outside of a mammogram, including magnetic resonance imaging, weren't covered by insurance. 

That changed last week. 

Spurred by Young's advocacy in which she convened physicians at UC Health, breast cancer survivors, and Ohio state Reps. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) and Sedrick Denson (D-Cincinnati) who co-sponsored the bill, Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 371, which requires insurance companies to cover additional screenings for individuals who are at high risk for breast cancer, into law last Friday.

The bill's passage was nearly unanimous. Only one senator, Republican George F. Lang of West Chester, and one representative, Republican Sarah Arthur Fowler of Ashtabula, voted against it. 

The bill will go into effect 90 days from its signing.