Wisconsin Senate Bill 121 and Assembly Bill 117
Update: March 6, 2024 by Dawn Anderson
LOOKING AHEAD . . .
As noted in last month’s update, WBCC and our partners in the Early Detection Saves Lives Coalition ceased working for passage of the Breast Cancer Screening and Detection Bill (SB 121 / AB 117) due to harmful amendments to the bill.
The bill did not get on the schedule for a vote in either the Senate or the Assembly and the session is essentially over, so the bill is dead. That means that we will be starting fresh when the new legislature is seated in January of 2025.
It also means that we have a great opportunity ahead of us this year! With the new legislative district maps in place, every member of the Assembly (99 seats) and half of the Senate (even numbered districts) will be on the ballot this fall. The new maps include a number of newly competitive seats, which means more new candidates.
With this in mind, WBCC’s Policy Committee has plans to conduct several of our “Beyond the Pink Ribbon”® Advocacy Trainings this year so that we are ready, with a larger network of breast cancer advocates, to educate ALL legislators and candidates about the importance of this bill. There will be a lot of town halls and candidate forums to attend. Letters to the Editor to write. Conversations with friends and family members as they weigh which candidates will best support issues like ours.
WE WILL NEED YOUR HELP. WILL YOU BE READY TO TALK TO THE CANDIDATES IN YOUR DISTRICTS?
Please stay tuned for more news, dates and times for these trainings. Our hope is to do a mix of virtual and live trainings. You will come away from them feeling more confident in your discussions with policymakers and you will help us educate them so that when this bill comes back next session, they know what we expect of them. The insurance lobby has money and power. Breast cancer advocates have our voices and our votes, and we intend to use them this fall!
Update: February 4, 2024 by Dawn Anderson
As many of you who follow us on social media already know, WBCC has ceased advocacy efforts to pass SB 121 / AB 117, a breast cancer screening and detection bill. This means that while we are not working against passage, we are no longer actively working for it. Here’s why:
This bill would have ensured that high risk women, including the 40% of women with dense breasts in Wisconsin, could access medically recommended breast cancer screening and diagnostic tests at no cost. Because dense breast tissue can obscure tumors on mammograms, all major medical organizations that issue guidelines for this category of women recommend annual mammography plus MRI in order to catch breast tumors early, when they are most treatable, and before they have spread.
Unfortunately, the health insurance industry lobbied hard against the bill, blunting needed support. Then, in mid January an amendment was added that removes MRI as a cost free option, leaving only ultrasound screening at no cost. While we appreciate that many policy makers believe this is a “step in the right direction,” it simply doesn’t reflect good health policy. Women deserve what is medically recommended for them, not a baby step.
Out-of-pocket costs for breast MRI often run over $1000. An asymptomatic woman for whom this is a financial difficulty, or impossibility, will likely forgo medical recommendations to have this supplemental screening. As our patient advocates shared in their testimony to both the Senate and Assembly committees that held hearings on the bill, not receiving complete screenings can, and often does, result in a late stage diagnosis and a lifetime of living with breast cancer and its fallout.
The ongoing physical, emotional and financial toll of a late-stage diagnosis of any cancer is enormous. For decades, we’ve been told that if we want to save lives from breast cancer, it needs to be found early in order to increase the odds of that happening. That is the sole purpose of cancer screenings! Prevailing evidence shows that MRI is better at finding early cancers than mammography alone, or mammography plus ultrasound, in women with dense breasts. When science advances, our screening protocols should advance with it.
We are so proud of our advocates for all of the calls, emails and letters you sent to legislators in the last year. THANK YOU. They heard you. Getting the bill this far was a gamble from the outset, but as a result of a lot of work, conversations with legislators and the knowledge that this is what Wisconsin women deserve, we’ve made great inroads.
At this writing, the amended bill is waiting for scheduling in both the Senate and Assembly. We do not know if it will get a vote in either chamber before the session runs out, or whether it has enough votes to pass either chamber. But whether it does or doesn’t pass, we will be ready to come back in the 2025 session and finish the job.
As the saying goes, we won’t be starting over, we’ll be starting from experience.
Stay tuned and we hope you’ll join us!
Update: January 17, 2024 by Dawn Anderson
Important notice: After careful consideration we are immediately discontinuing our advocacy efforts for SB 121 / AB 117 – the Breast Cancer Screening and Diagnostics bill. We do not take this step lightly – our supporters have made huge progress in helping build legislative support for this important legislation over the last year. We are beyond grateful for everything you have done!
Unfortunately, amendments that are being added to the bill will ignore recommended screening guidelines for high-risk women. We cannot support this. The women of Wisconsin need and deserve better than that. Please stay tuned – a more complete explanation of this reversal in our position will be coming out later in the week. At this time though, please cease advocacy efforts on the bill. Thank you again – we have a lot to be proud of and WE WILL BE BACK NEXT SESSION!
Update: December 31, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
After 10 months of hard work by advocates, and calls and emails to legislators from all of you, SB 121 is at a crossroads as the state legislative session winds down. Cost-free access to essential screenings for high-risk women may remain unattainable for nearly half of Wisconsin women.
We have made incremental progress in gaining bipartisan support, however there are very few floor sessions remaining for us to get the bill through both houses of the legislature:
- The Senate is meeting only once in each of January, February and March. The bill has not had a vote in the Senate Health Committee yet, but that is likely to happen in January.
- The Assembly is meeting four times in January and February, but not at all in March. The bill has not yet had a hearing or a vote in the Assembly Health Committee, although the chair of the committee has expressed support for a hearing soon.
All of this is to say that the window is closing for us to get this legislation to the governor’s desk this session.
Please follow us closely – on social media and our email list – for any urgent action needed. You can continue to help by sending messages to legislators through the Early Detection Saves Lives action portal. And please continue to call your legislators’ offices and let them know how important this bill is to women who are at high risk for breast cancer.
Remember:
- Mammograms alone miss almost half of tumors in women with dense breasts. They simply do not show clearly and can therefore continue to grow and spread.
- All major medical organizations that issue screening guidelines for high-risk women recommend annual mammography plus MRI for high-risk women. This includes the American Cancer Society, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the American College of Radiology, the Society of Breast Imaging and the American Society of Breast Surgeons.
- Out-of-pocket costs for the additional screenings that high-risk women need are a barrier for thousands of Wisconsin women. We need to ensure EARLY DETECTION is an option for all women!
STAY TUNED CLOSELY FOR MORE NEWS AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!
Update: December 4, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
We are anticipating a vote on SB 121 in the next month or so! Please call Senate Health Committee members and encourage them or thank them, as noted below. We need FOUR votes for it to pass it out of committee and move on to the full Senate for a vote. There are indications that insurance industry lobbyists may be proposing possible amendments to the bill. WE DO NOT WANT THAT.
PLEASE KEEP CALLING AND ENCOURAGE FAMILY AND FRIENDS TO DO THE SAME
Encourage these senators to vote YES to pass the bill out of committee AS IS:
Senator Andre Jacque: 608-266-3512 | sen.jacque@legis.wisconsin.gov
Senator Patrick Testin: 608-266-3123 | sen.testin@legis.wisconsin.gov
Senator Mary Felzkowski: 608-266-2509 | sen.felzkowski@legis.wisconsin.gov
Thank these senators for their support for the bill AS IS:
Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara: 608-266-0718 | sen.cabral-guevara@legis.wisconsin.gov
Senator Tim Carpenter: 608-266-8535 | sen.carpenter@legis.wisconsin.gov
Senator Dianne Hesselbein: 608-266-6670 | sen.hesselbein@legis.wisconsin.gov
WBCC has worked with organizational partners for over 2 years to get to this point. We are just one vote away from the bill advancing or dying. Please help us get over this hurdle and keep the bill alive!
High-risk Wisconsin women need and deserve this screening bill. Over 20 states have already passed similar legislation. It won’t just be GIVEN to us though – our legislators need to hear from all of us.
Update: November 7, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
Breast Cancer Awareness month in October provided many opportunities for us to talk about SB 121 / AB 117 in the media. Interviews with our advocates aired on Fox 6 News in Milwaukee, WISN 12 in Milwaukee, WISN statewide on UPFRONT, Spectrum 1 statewide, WMTV 15 in Madison, 620WTMJ radio, and the UpNorthNews radio program. (Links to these interviews can be found here.)
Visits to the earlydetectionwi.com action portal have grown with each interview and these contacts are being directed to legislative offices weekly. If you haven’t sent a letter via the portal, please DO, and share the link with family and friends. These contacts to offices make a big difference.
Advocates have been holding meetings and making calls to Senate offices to build support for the bill and help get it to a vote in the Senate Committee on Health. Once it passes out of committee, the next steps are getting it scheduled for a full Senate vote and then scheduling a hearing and vote in the Assembly – if we don’t run out of time this session!
The time for talking is over – we need ACTION NOW from legislators!
We’d like to recognize and thank Senators Cabral-Guevara (Appleton), Carpenter (Milwaukee) and Hesselbein (Middleton) on the Senate Committee on Health for their commitment to passing the bill. We’d like to thank the Senate cosponsors: Larson (Milwaukee), Spreitzer (Beloit), Taylor (Milwaukee), Wirch (Somers) and Roys (Madison). Additionally, the following Senators have confirmed their support: Ballweg (Markesan), Nass (Whitewater), Knodl (Germantown), Cowles (Green Bay), Wanggaard (Racine), James (Altoona) and Feyen (Fond du Lac). We thank them too!
These Senators represent nearly half of the Senate seats – but we need MORE.
If you don’t see your Senator’s name here, please call them and ask them if they will support SB 121 with a “yes” vote! If they’re a yes, it would be very helpful to let us know so we can follow up. If you don’t get a response right away, please keep calling – persistence pays off and they are usually tracking many bills, so it helps to keep SB 121 playing on a loop in their minds! The aides in their offices are your allies, get to know them by name and make sure they know YOU.
Together, we can finally make this bill a reality that will help thousands of Wisconsin women and their families. It WILL save lives!
Update: October 9, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
Your Calls Are Needed Today!
WBCC has worked for over 3 years to help get legislation passed that would ensure no-cost screenings for women with dense breast tissue, for whom mammography alone is not effective. Small tumors are essentially hidden in dense tissue on mammogram. However, they are visible on ultrasound or MRI. Insurers don’t cover these “supplemental” screenings, leaving women with no choice but to pay out of pocket for tests that should be considered “preventive services,” the same as mammography.
Senate Bill 121 / Assembly Bill 117 has broad bipartisan support in both chambers with 44 cosigners. It has had a hearing in the Senate Committee on Health, but there are not enough “yes” votes to move it on to the full Senate for a vote. Three senators need to hear from you – and your friends and families. Please call them – every day if possible – and tell them how important this bill is. It WILL save lives. Without at least one of them voting yes, the bill will die. They need to hear from all of us.
Right now, a resolution is circulating for signatures at the Capitol acknowledging Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In that resolution, legislators pledge to promote early detection and save lives through legislation and policy change.
If they do not support SB121, they are not fulfilling their promise to us.
They need to turn their “awareness” into action and SHOW US.
Here are their phone numbers:
Senator Mary Felzkowski: 608-266-2509
Senator Andre Jacque: 608-266-3512
Senator Patrick Testin: 608-266-3123
Please let us know if any of them agrees to vote yes.
Finally, if you’re so inclined, please call Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara, the bill’s author and chair of the Senate Committee on Health and THANK HER for her unwavering support for this bill! She has been a champion! Her office can be reached at 608-266- 0718.
Thank you!
Update: September 5, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
We continue to collaborate with the Early Detection Saves Lives Coalition to build support for SB 121 / AB 117. This crucial bill will ensure no-cost screenings and diagnostic tests for high-risk women and women with dense breast tissue, for whom mammograms alone are insufficient.
Following the July 12 hearing in the Senate Committee on Health, several news outlets covered our advocates testifying at the Capitol, including Wisconsin Public Radio, Spectrum News, WisPolitics and the Wisconsin Examiner.
In response to insurer claims and inaccuracies shared during their testimony, WBCC has submitted a letter to committee members emphasizing the importance of this bill.
On August 7, WBCC Policy Committee member Ashley Inda was interviewed on the radio program “As Goes Wisconsin.” On August 25, Policy Committee member – and impetus behind this legislation – Gail Zeamer joined our Board President, Lindsey Nathan O’Connor, for an interview with WSAW-TV in Wausau. And on August 31, an editorial piece by another Policy Committee member, Linda Hansen, was published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other major state newspapers.
We’re out there as advocates, sharing personal stories and hoping to inspire others to do the same. You can find links to these interviews and articles on the news page of the website. Check them out, and then please contact your legislators, ask them to support SB 121 and AB 117, and watch for news from WBCC about upcoming votes and a hearing in the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care.
If you have received a late diagnosis of breast cancer due to a “false negative” mammogram because the cancer was hidden in dense tissue, please contact us to share your story. Your voice is so important in explaining the impact of a late diagnosis to legislators.
Update: July 15, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
WBCC advocates continue to work on building support for SB 121 / AB 117 regarding no-cost-sharing screening and diagnostic tests. On July 12, a hearing was held in the Senate Committee on Health. The WBCC was represented by Dawn Anderson and patient advocates Gail Zeamer, Linda Hansen, Ashley Inda, Amanda Walsh, Margaret Fritsch and Ann Zietlow, all of whom testified at the hearing in favor of the bill. The next steps will be a vote in the committee on passage of the bill and a hearing in the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care, which we hope to see scheduled in late summer. Despite the work we’ve already done to build support with legislators, we’re still at the front end of the process of this bill becoming law.
This bill will require Wisconsin insurers to cover supplemental screenings and diagnostic tests without cost sharing for women who:
- are considered at increased risk based on National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines or
- have heterogeneously or extremely dense breast tissue based on American College of Radiology guidelines
We have the technology to better screen for small, more treatable tumors in women with dense tissue, however most insurers will not cover ultrasound or MRI without significant cost sharing. High deductible plans also put these other tests out of reach for many women. This puts women who can’t afford the out-of-pocket costs at a disadvantage. ALL WOMEN DESERVE EQUAL ACCESS TO THE BEST BREAST HEALTH CARE AVAILABLE, REGARDLESS OF THEIR INCOME.
WBCC is working as part of The Early Detection Saves Lives Coalition – a diverse group of stakeholder organizations – to see this bill passed. Support is broader and more bipartisan than the first time it was introduced in the last legislative session, but it will still be an uphill climb to get the legislation to the governor’s desk. As expected, the insurance industry is lobbying hard against the bill.
We have a way to go yet and we need you to help keep this bill “visible” with legislators by calling your representatives and asking for their support – often. Don’t let it go to the bottom of their piles of paper. Persistence pays off! (Who Are My Legislators?)
In the meantime, you can also use and share this action portal to ask your friends and family members in Wisconsin to contact their representatives too. Committee members commented on the number of emails they’ve been getting. It’s been effective and we need to keep up the messages going in to their offices! Thank you!
You can watch the recording of the July 12 hearing on WisconsinEye by creating a free account on their website: https://wiseye.org/2023/07/12/senate-committee-on-health-12/
Click here for links to additional coverage of the legislation and hearing.
Update: June 5, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
Interest in and bipartisan support for SB 121 / AB 117 continues to build. As part of the Early Detection Saves Lives Coalition, WBCC is joining other stakeholder organizations to get this important bill passed this session.
Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara introduced the bill in February. She chairs the Senate Committee on Health, which will soon hold a hearing on it. It must receive enough “yes” votes in committee before going to the Senate for a vote. Representative Nate Gustafson introduced the bill in the Assembly. Representative Clint Moses, chair of the Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care, has told our advocates that he will also hold a hearing this summer.
Several WBCC patient advocates and Policy Committee members will be providing either in-person or written testimony at the hearings. If you are interested in sharing your story to help us get this bill passed, please reach out to us! We’ll get you all the information and support you’ll need to make your voice heard. We are committed to making sure that cost is not a barrier to a woman receiving the care she needs to find a cancer early, when it is most treatable.
In the meantime, please call your representatives to encourage them to support this bill! Go to the Wisconsin State Legislature’s website and enter your address in the top right corner to find their contact information. We especially need calls from constituents in districts represented by Senators Patrick Testin, Andre Jacque and Mary Felzkowski – all members of the Senate Committee on Health who have not indicated their support for the bill yet.
In addition, the Early Detection Saves Lives Coalition has created an Action Portal that allows you to send personalized email messages to key lawmakers in the state legislature encouraging them to support the bill. It only takes 30 seconds, making it a quick and easy way to make your voice heard!
Update: April 27, 2023 by Dawn Anderson
WBCC Advocates were back in Madison on April 19 for State Advocacy Day. Our team of 17 conducted more than 35 meetings with legislators and staff in support of Senate Bill 121 / Assembly Bill 117.
We picked up some key support for this bi-partisan bill. This bill will require Wisconsin insurers to cover supplemental screenings and diagnostic tests without cost sharing for women who:
- are considered at increased risk based on National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines or
- have heterogeneously or extremely dense breast tissue based on American College of Radiology guidelines
Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara (R-19) is our champion on this bill and chairs the Senate Health Committee, where a hearing will be held for the bill in late May (date TBD). At least 5 WBCC patient advocates will be testifying in person in support of the bill.
Representative Clint Moses (R-29) is chair of the Assembly Health Committee and committed to our advocates that he would hold a hearing for the bill this summer. If you are in his district, please give his office a call and thank him for his support! This will be an uphill climb in the Assembly.
As part of our follow up to Advocacy Day and our work on this bill, we are asking for calls to be made to the following representatives. If you live in their district, please call and ask that they vote YES on SB 121/AB 117. It will save women’s lives!
Senator Andre Jacque (R-01), Senate Health Committee – 608-266-3512
Senator Patrick Testin (R-24), Senate Health Committee – 608-266-3123
Representative Robin Vos (R-63), Assembly Speaker – 608-237-9163
March 25, 2023
SB 121 was introduced in the Senate on March 8, 2023 by Senator Rachael Cabral-Guevara and Representative Nate Gustafson. AB 117 was introduced in the Assembly on March 24. This important legislation will require insurers to cover – without cost sharing – all essential screening and diagnostic tests for women who have dense breasts or are at high risk due to genetics or strong family history.
Our state law requires women to be notified after a mammogram if they have dense breast tissue. This condition can not only hide tumors on a mammogram, but is also an independent risk factor for development of breast cancer. About 40% of women in Wisconsin have dense breasts.
Technology exists that would make these “hidden” tumors visible, allowing them to be caught early before they become life threatening. Ultrasound and MRI both catch early tumors more than mammography alone in this situation. Insurers, though, often won’t cover the recommended additional screenings for women with this condition. This creates an inequity in access to care between women who can afford the high out-of-pocket costs for these tests and women who can’t.
PLEASE CALL YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR AND ASK THEM TO SUPPORT SB 121 / AB 117.
The senate bill currently has 35 bipartisan cosponsors and has been referred to the Senate Health Committee for a hearing. We need broad support to move both bills forward!
Find your Senator and Representative and their contact information here under “Who are my legislators?” Just enter your address.
Give the staffer your name and address when you call and simply tell them you would like your Senator/Representative to support SB 121 / AB 117 – and why you want them to. We all hear about how “early detection saves lives.” This bill would increase the chances of that happening for nearly half of Wisconsin women.
Thank you for helping save lives!