Mandates health insurance coverage by eliminating out-of-pocket costs for lung cancer screenings in order to enable patients to get the critical care they need without delay.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would have required health insurance plans in Rhode Island to fully cover lung cancer screenings, meaning patients would pay nothing out of pocket — no copays, no deductibles, and no coinsurance — when getting screened for lung cancer. The goal was to remove financial barriers that might cause people to delay or skip this type of preventive screening, allowing doctors to catch lung cancer earlier when it is generally more treatable.

The bill would have affected Rhode Island residents who have health insurance and are at risk for lung cancer — such as long-term smokers or older adults who meet certain medical guidelines for screening. It would also have placed new requirements on insurance companies operating in the state, requiring them to absorb the cost of these screenings rather than passing any portion of the cost on to patients.

However, this bill did not become law. After being introduced and sent to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee for review, it was withdrawn at the request of its sponsor, meaning the lawmaker who proposed the bill chose to pull it back before it could move forward in the legislative process. The reasons for the withdrawal were not specified in the available legislative record.