Idaho lawmaker has cancer. She’s fighting for others’ access to test that ‘saved my life’
Weeks before undergoing an embryo transfer as part of her in vitro fertilization process, Rep. Brooke Green, D-Boise, woke up one night with a gut feeling: She needed to get a mammogram.
She went to the doctor the next day, and by 11 a.m., she learned that she had breast cancer, she told fellow lawmakers Monday on the Idaho House floor. Months later, during a scan ahead of her planned mastectomy, she learned she had cancer in her other breast, too.
“At that time, that enhanced screening caught my second cancer, and I started 2025 not as a one-time breast cancer survivor, but now a two-time breast cancer survivor,” Green said. “That enhanced screening, while I may be at a stage that is curable, is ensuring that I can fight this.”
She was lucky. Screening caught her cancer before she got pregnant — which, because her cancer is hormone-driven, would have been a “catastrophic storm,” she said in an interview last month with the Idaho Statesman. And she was fortunate that she had access to the advanced screening at all, Green said.
In 2023, Idaho ranked 50th in the U.S. for breast cancer screening, according to the Cancer Data Registry of Idaho. Many women in rural parts of the state lack access to more advanced screenings, such as 3D imaging or MRIs, which are better able to catch cancer early, Green said. In many cases, she said, insurers decline to cover the advanced scans for high-risk women as a preventative measure — forcing patients to often pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for the screening.
In practice, that means men and women who are predisposed to breast cancer — whether because they have “dense” breasts, a family history of cancer or a genetic mutation — often opt out of scans that could be lifesaving, Green said.
On Monday, Green’s bill to change that overwhelmingly passed the Idaho House, advancing to the Senate.
Co-sponsored by Rep. Dori Healey, R-Boise, and House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, the legislation would require many health insurance plans to treat supplemental screenings as preventative — not only diagnostic — measures if a doctor recommends them for a high-risk patient. Such a change would dramatically increase affordability of and access to these screenings, Green said.
On the House floor, Rubel shared a story about her son’s friend who lost his mother to breast cancer when he was 11 years old.
“I will never forget the sight of all those boys” at the funeral, Rubel said. “They were just so bewildered and couldn’t fathom a world where their friend didn’t have his mom there anymore.
“I hope that with this bill, we will see fewer such funerals and fewer empty seats at the tables.”
Preventative breast cancer screening ‘fiscally conservative,’ lawmakers argue
In a cost-sensitive Legislature, the bill’s sponsors framed it as “fiscally conservative.”
“You cannot argue against the fact that catching cancer early results in a better cost to the payer than catching it at (Stage) 2, 3 or 4,” Green said on the House floor Monday. Her mastectomy cost $137,000, and her chemotherapy cost “a couple hundred thousand,” she said.
“It’s really quite simple,” Healey told fellow House lawmakers. “Supporting legislation covering MRIs for high-risk patients is a crucial step. Preventing breast cancer saves us money.”
Bill documentation acknowledged that the bill could increase costs to the state health insurance plan, with “aggregate screening costs” estimated between $300,000 and $600,000. But sponsors argued that there would likely be “significant offsetting savings” from early detection of breast cancer and avoidance of the “much larger outlays” for chemotherapy and other treatments.
On Monday, several lawmakers offered emotional testimony of family members and friends who had suffered from breast cancer. Green’s twin sister, who stepped in for her this legislative session as Green sought cancer treatment, is herself considered high risk given the family history. She has a 58% chance of getting breast cancer and her own doctor has recommended she get an annual MRI, Green said.
Green said she’s been surprised by the outpouring of support for the bill from lawmakers, and she partially credited the power of having a personal story.
“They now relate with somebody who’s — I mean, I’m going to be going through cancer here, I’m going to be losing my hair so publicly,” Green told the Statesman Monday.
“I think it goes to show, each one of us brings such a personal life to this. While it impacts our constituents, if we can tell the story, and a friend can see that, it’s like, ‘OK, I can relate. It matters.’ ”
This story was originally published February 25, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
