Alberta’s government is lowering the age for breast cancer screening to those as young as 40, a move that opens the door to self-referral so more people can access publicly funded mammograms by next year.
Preventative Health Minister Adriana LaGrange says they’re following the evidence that early detection significantly increases survival rates.
And she wants to see the province's screening rates, which are already high, climb even to higher to 100 per cent for those at highest risk.
The plan is to phase in the new rules.
Patients aged 40 to 44 will be able to access free mammograms with only one initial doctor referral until the full changes kick in a year from now, next April.
Currently, there are no out-of-pocket costs for those age 45 and up for self-referral, but if a doctor refers someone for a medically necessary mammogram at any age, they will be covered.
The government estimates expanding breast cancer screening will make 193,000 more Albertans eligible.
LaGrange says the province has the highest breast cancer screening rates in Canada, with 84 per cent of women aged 50 to 74 and about half of women aged 40 to 49 having had a mammogram in the past three years.
"We have good evidence that shows that if we can screen people early and find issues early, particularly breast cancer, that the survival rate is over 90 per cent now," LaGrange said in an interview.
On Wednesday, LaGrange also announced the province is putting $2.25 million into a new oncofertility program – a type of medical treatment focused on preserving fertility for patients before cancer treatment.
That program is expected to be implemented at some point in the next 12 months.
LaGrange said she wants to get the information out early so Albertans can start talking about it.
“One of (patients') top concerns is will they be able to have children in the future? So it's something that we were able to earmark some funds for and start that conversation on how we make that happen," she said.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
