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NJ Women & Politics
In the Legislature
By Brian Howell
 A bill attempting to help New Jersey women detect breast cancer early hasn’t progressed out of the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee since its January 10, 2006 introduction and will likely be re-filed when the Legislature reconvenes this fall. Assembly Bill No. 1191 would require all insurance carriers in New Jersey to provide insurance coverage for magnetic resonance imaging for women at high risk for breast cancer. According to one of the bill’s sponsors, Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan, Jr. (D-18), high risk women sometimes have to pay out of pocket for this expense.
Diegnan said he was compelled to introduce this legislation because his secretary, whose mother died from breast cancer, had to pay the expenses for an MRI breast exam herself because it wasn’t covered by her insurance. The exam resulted in early detection of breast cancer, which saved the woman’s life. Ultimately, she was reimbursed the expense by the carrier because Diegnan, an attorney, fought the carrier on her behalf.
This bill also expands the scope of required coverage, for both mammograms and magnetic resonance imaging, to individual
health benefits plans and small employer health benefits plans.
If you want your opinion heard, contact your legislators. For more information or to find your legislators, go to www.njleg.state.nj.us.
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