Rural Massachusetts needs access to precision medicine. Diseases like cancer affect all of us, but they don’t affect all communities equally. People facing cancer and survivors who live in rural communities are more likely to have limited incomes and to die from cancer than their urban counterparts. They also experience serious financial hardship.
Despite the enormous benefits of biomarker testing and biomarker guided treatment, insurance coverage is failing to keep pace with innovations and advancements in this game-changing testing. This can leave some patients with the decision of paying for these tests out-of-pocket or going without the information. As a result, not all communities are benefiting from the latest advances in biomarker testing and precision medicine.
Rural residents like our neighbors throughout western Massachusetts, the hilltowns and the Berkshires, along with communities of color, people with lower socioeconomic status, and patients receiving care in non-academic medical centers are less likely to receive biomarker testing.
Without action to expand coverage and access to biomarker testing, advances in precision medicine could increase existing disparities in cancer outcomes by race, ethnicity, income, and geography.
Improving access to biomarker testing is so important for rural communities. With thanks to state Sen. Jo Comerford and state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa for their sponsorship of the legislation, I want to ask others to join me in calling on other state legislators to support H. 4339/S. 809 to expand access to biomarker testing so more patients can get the right tests to match them with the right treatment at the right time.
Joe Bykowski
Westhampton