DES MOINES, Iowa — Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday signed 40 bills into law, with two of them involving insurance coverage for cancer care.
In 2023, the State of Iowa was recognized by the Iowa Cancer Registry for having the second-highest rate of new cancers in the nation. During the 2024 legislative session, some lawmakers focused on how to make cancer-driven care more affordable for Iowans.
Some of that legislation is now law.
The first, HF 2668, aims to make biomarker testing eligible to be covered by insurance. Biomarker testing is a medical analysis of individual tissue, blood or other biospecimens to see patients' genetic family history of cancer and other diseases.
This bill garnered support from both sides of the aisle, as well as the governor herself.
"This is the future and it will just make a huge difference, and we want to make sure that Iowans have access to this opportunity," Reynolds said.
Iowa cancer survivor Maria Steel sees the new law as a win for her and other survivors, as she benefited from biomarker testing herself.
"I'm also on targeted therapy, which I know what therapy to be on, or actually my oncologist knows what therapy I need to be on because of the biomarker testing. So, this is a huge day that this bill was signed by Governor Reynolds," she said.
HF 2489 requires most health insurance plans to cover supplemental and diagnostic breast exams in addition to mammograms.
"It's an honor for me to sign into law House File 2489 ... it passed unanimously so it's been a good bill," Reynolds said.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020, Kimberly Pearson beat it and became a nurse who helps women like her navigate the disease.
"I have so many patients who are high risk, and we know that and they need better imaging and they can't afford it because of the limited allowances by insurance," Pearson told Local 5.
Two others of the bills Reynolds signed into law include modifying individual and alternate income tax rates, and another on programs administered by the Economic Development Authority on economic growth and attraction.