Bipartisan momentum grows in expanding Medicare cancer screenings

By HPN Staff

Cancer prevention advocates are calling on Congress to push through a new law that would boost early detection cancer screenings within the Medicare program. Combined with current practice, the additional screenings could save money and lives in the fight against the deadly disease.

Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) Screening Coverage Act now has 277 cosponsors in the U.S. House and 57 cosponsors in the U.S. Senate, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). 

The law would direct Medicare to cover cutting-edge screening technologies that can detect dozens of cancers through a simple blood test.

According to the Cancer Support Community, this could boost survival rates among the roughly 1 million Medicare patients who are diagnosed with cancer each year.

Why it matters

This year, more than 2 million Americans are expected to be diagnosed with cancer, with more than half of those cases hitting seniors aged 65 and over, according to the ACS.

“The evidence overwhelmingly supports that detecting cancer earlier can be the difference between life and death,” said Lisa Lacasse, president of the ACS Cancer Action Network.  “When cancer is detected at an earlier stage, it is often easier and less costly to treat, and patients are more likely to survive.”

With more than half of the members of the House and Senate now in support of the legislation, it should be passed right away, Lacasse said.

More detail

MCED tests could provide a major breakthrough in the battle against cancer. The tests, which are still awaiting approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), look for traces of cancer in samples of blood or other bodily fluids.

The tests do not replace more detailed screenings, such as colonoscopies or mammograms, but they can provide patients with a much earlier warning and ensure that they are referred for additional testing and treatment if needed, according to ACS.

Under federal law, once MCED tests are FDA approved, there are two tracks for authorizing their use under the Medicare program, according to the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

The slower route is a review and recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts, which typically takes between two and three years. Direct authorization from Congress is potentially much faster.

The Nancy Gardner Sewell MCED Screening Coverage Act “would greatly reduce any such access delays for seniors while allowing [Medicare] to use its evidence-based process to determine coverage,” the Prevent Cancer Foundation says in a letter co-signed by dozens of advocacy groups. 

“Accordingly, these new multi-cancer screening tools will complement existing screenings and dramatically improve cancer early detection capabilities.”

The bigger picture

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. after heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In 2023, more than 613,000 Americans died from cancer. Almost three-quarters of these cancer deaths are in patients aged 65 and over, according to CDC data.

According to a 2023 study, preventative cancer screenings gave Americans an additional 12 million more years of life during the 25 years between 1996 and 2020.

Besides the human benefits, the people who benefited from cancer screenings lived longer and more productive lives, generating an estimated $6.5 trillion in economic benefits, according to a team of researchers from the University of Michigan and University of Chicago.