(The Center Square) – Tennessee state employees would have genetic testing for certain cancers covered at 100% if a bill pending in the General Assembly passes.
The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee recommended approval of Senate Bill 1626 on Tuesday 5-3, with Republican Sens. Ken Yager, John Stevens and committee Chairman Paul Bailey in opposition.
“Who we are really targeting are those who have a genetic predisposition to cancer, that we have the ability to identify,” said Knoxville Republican Sen. Richard Briggs, the bill’s sponsor. “As you know, as far as incomes in Tennessee, as far as we are in the top 10 states, on state debt, on our road, on our road debt and all of those but we’ve not budgeted and we’re just consistently in the last 10 states, the worst 10 states for many of these health issues.”
The tests covered are ones looking for an “inherited gene mutation” for someone with a personal or family history of cancer and “evidence based cancer imaging” for someone at an increased risk for cancers, according to the bill.
“The cancers we are trying to diagnose with this are not old folks’ cancers,” Briggs said. “These are cancers that are hitting people in their 30s and 40s. We can intervene in those people not only to save long term treatments of the cancers but also diagnose the cancers at a young age.”
Briggs said the state is not imposing a mandate but is just increasing a benefit for state employees.
“Chairman Briggs, I appreciate your passion but benefits cost money,” Bailey said.
The state insurance plan splits the cost, with the patient paying 20% and the insurer paying 80%, according to Jonathan Springer, director of legislation for the Tennessee Department of Finance. The bill would cost the state about $2.9 million, according to its fiscal note.
“This would put 100% onto the state to pay for,” Springer told the committee. “At a time when health care premiums are rising all across the country, we just feel like this payment mandate negatively impacts our efforts to keep premiums as low as possible for all of our members on the plan.”
The bill moves to the Senate Finance Committee. The House version of the bill, sponsored by Oak Ridge Republican Rep. Richard Rick Scarbrough, is in a House Insurance subcommittee.
