How One Wisconsin Family Helped Change Breast Screening Rules
After a Neenah woman’s breast cancer was missed, advocates spent years pushing for state law change.
Doctor viewing mammogram. National Cancer Institute.
Wisconsin women will have access to preventive breast cancer screenings under a new law signed Thursday by Gov. Tony Evers.
Named Gail’s Law after a woman who died after developing breast cancer that routine screenings missed, the new law requires insurers to cover supplemental breast screening exams for those at increased risk. Wisconsin already required insurance companies to cover initial mammograms but did not previously require coverage of follow-up screenings.
Passage of the bill in the state Legislature has been years in the making. The Gail’s Law bill was introduced in three consecutive legislative sessions. After it was first introduced in 2021, the bill passed last month when Republicans announced they had reached consensus on it and a separate bill to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage.
Gail Zeamer of Neenah died from breast cancer in 2024. She was 56. She got involved in advocating for the change in the law after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. The lumps she had discussed with doctors at annual checkups were not checked with an ultrasound or MRI, in part because of insurance gaps.
Another factor in Zeamer’s case was dense breast tissue, which can lead to routine mammograms missing cancerous growths.
In 2017, Wisconsin passed a law that required health care facilities to notify a woman after a mammogram if she is found to have dense breast tissue, as that creates an additional risk factor.
Early detection matters. Almost 99 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer at the earliest stage live for 5 years or more, compared to about 32 percent of those diagnosed at the most advanced stage, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a statement, Rep. Lisa Subeck, D-Madison, said the new law “ensures that the coverage women need matches the realities of their health, so no one is forced to delay or forgo potentially life-saving screening.”
At the bill’s signing in the state Capitol on Thursday, Evers said the system “failed” Zeamer.
“However, in the face of adversity and unimaginable struggle, she chose to persevere, and now, thanks to Gail, Wisconsin will have not one but two laws on the books to protect women’s health,” Evers said, referring as well to the 2017 law.
Claudia Zeamer, Gail’s daughter, said she is proud that her mother “is now a part of history.”
“I wish more than anything that she could be here to see what she started and to see how many lives she’s going to help in the future,” Claudia Zeamer said.
Evers signs ‘Gail’s Law’ to require coverage of preventive breast cancer screenings was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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