Pennsylvania lawmakers propose bill to lower age for Colorectal Cancer screening
(WHTM)– March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and state lawmakers want to help more people get screened.
They plan to introduce a bill lowering the age for insurance to cover screenings from 50 to 45 years old.
The bill’s supporters include State Rep. Pat Gallagher, who was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at age 45, and State Rep Tarik Khan, who is a family nurse practitioner who refers patients each week for screenings, including colonoscopies.
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“If an x-ray finds a mass on your lung, they can’t do anything,” Khan said. “But if a colonoscopy finds a polyp, they can take out the polyp and do a biopsy, it’s really a critical test.”
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“At 45 I was 5 years before I was even supposed to get checked and that is alarming and especially how far along I became,” Gallagher said. “It is important that we move these ages down without barriers.”
Stage 1 Colorectal Cancer has no symptoms, but is highly treatable when detected.
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