Wisconsin Lawmakers Push Forward a Bill to Expand Coverage for Additional Screenings for Breast Cancer

Friday, May 30th, 2025 -- 10:01 AM

(WMTV) There is a 1 in 8 chance that a woman in the U.S. develops breast cancer in her life.

It’s the second leading cause of cancer death in women. On Wednesday, Wisconsin lawmakers gathered at the State Capitol to push forward a bill that would expand coverage for additional screenings.

Gail’s Bill honors Gail Zeamer who passed last June to the deadly disease. In 2018, WMTV-TV spoke with Zeamer about this bill. Seven years ago, state law was passed to require facilities to notify certain women of their breast density.

If Gail’s law is passed, it would build on the existing law by requiring insurance companies to cover more screenings for women with dense breast tissue and other high risk factors.

Gail’s daughter, Sophie Zeamer, testified on Wednesday and said she had to take this opportunity to continue her mom’s work. “She worked tirelessly to get the breast density notification bill passed and then with this,” said Zeamer. “She was in last stages of Stage 4 cancer, and she was still putting in the hours.”

Dawn Anderson is the retired executive director of Wisconsin Breast Cancer Association. She explained that being able to afford testing would save many lives for those who have breast cancer.

“About 6,000 [women] a year are diagnosed in Wisconsin, 700 will die and about 30% will be diagnosed at a later stage,” said Anderson. Those statistics and stories are why the authors of Gail’s Bill and state leaders are fighting for it to pass in this session.

“We are hoping to get this exceed out by the end of the week. I would like to get this onto the floor with the Senate then we see where we are with Assembly,” said Senator and Author of the bill, Rachael Cabral-Guevara. She said they could not do it alone.

“Gail was with us today and Gail has love not only for her family but for the women of Wisconsin and that she wants this to pass and I am hopeful that it will pass this session," said Cabral-Guevara.

Representative Amanda Nedweski said that if the bill passes, the impact to premium cost would be about four to seven cents per member each month on their health plan.

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