Committee supports Sen. Brenner bill to expand health care coverage for PFAS blood testing
AUGUSTA — On Tuesday, the Legislature’s Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee voted 8-4 in favor of a bill from Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough. LD 132, “An Act to Require Health Insurance Carriers to Provide Coverage for Blood Testing for Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances,” would require private health insurance companies to cover the cost of blood testing for PFAS.
“As chair of the Environment and Natural Resources Committee and co-chair of the PFAS Advisory Fund Committee, I have heard first-hand how the issue of PFAS contamination has taken a toll on our farmers and other rural communities with high levels of exposure,” said Sen. Brenner. “They are worried about their health and the health of their families. We need to do all we can to make sure that they are getting the healthcare that they need to manage the health impacts of this toxic chemical. Early detection of PFAS-linked diseases could mean the difference between life and death for many Mainers. For affected communities, especially children, access to PFAS blood testing is essential to their medical needs. Mainers coping with these chemicals need insurer-covered access to the PFAS blood test.”
LD 132 would help ensure that blood testing for PFAS is accessible to all Mainers. Blood tests can cost upward of $600 out-of-pocket. Many members of PFAS-affected communities are not able to pay for a test that could potentially save their lives. LD 132 would require all health plans offered in Maine that are renewed by or beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, to cover blood testing for PFAS.
Maine first responders, schoolchildren and farmers would benefit from this legislation.
“Many things have changed throughout the years of my service and we have always strived to create a safer working environment to save lives and property of the people we work with and the people we serve,” said Chief Jason D. Beckler, Mount Vernon Fire and Rescue Department. “I view LD 132 as another step to making the unsafe work environment we are expected to work in safer. Allowing firefighters to receive a low cost, insurer-covered tests for forever chemicals such as PFAS is critical in the early diagnosis for cancers. The fire service as a whole is dwindling. The last thing we can afford is to lose more firefighters to cancer from something that could be detected early to give them a fighting chance.”
At least 25 schools and child care facilities in Maine use water supplies that are above Maine’s PFAS drinking water standard of 20 parts per trillion. The 6,650 students enrolled in these schools may have been exposed to these dangerous levels of PFAS. An additional 43 schools have been exposed to PFAS levels higher than the EPA’s draft drinking water standards, which are lower than the state’s regulation. The 9,550 students enrolled in these 43 schools have potentially been exposed to these high levels of forever chemicals.
At least 56 farms with documented PFAS contamination contain high levels of PFAS. These levels were discovered in the first tier of the state’s sludge investigation.
PFAS, also called “forever chemicals,” have been connected to numerous health risks such as kidney cancer, elevated cholesterol, and reduced infant birthweight. Currently, there isn’t a way to remove PFAS from a person’s body. The body also cannot break down PFAS on its own, meaning that these forever chemicals can remain in our bodies for decades. Blood testing ensures that Mainers can understand their level of PFAS exposure and the related health risks.
LD 132 faces votes in the Senate and House.