PA cancer testing bill hits home for Bucks County’s Farry and family

State Sen. Frank Farry had spent decades as a firefighter before he married his wife, Kristen Erway Farry, in 2017. So between the known carcinogens at fire scenes and the age difference — 11 years — he figured that if someone was going to get cancer first, it would be him.

“I’ve driven a harder paper route,” said Farry, R-Langhorne.

But the night before Thanksgiving 2023, Kristen did a self-exam in the shower and felt a lump on her breast. “She didn’t tell me,” Farry said in a recent interview — not until she came back from the gynecologist who also felt the mass.

“Nothing ended up being something,” Farry said.

Bucks County lawmaker’s wife diagnosed with breast cancer

Nine months earlier, Farry and 48 other state senators had co-sponsored legislation to make follow-up ultrasounds and MRIs free to patients at higher risk of breast cancer under state-regulated insurance plans.

But once the law took effect, the gaps became obvious, Farry said: Women who weren’t high risk still had to pay. Women like his wife.

Kristen, diagnosed at 40, had no family history, and tested negative for the risk-raising BRCA gene.

“Nobody in my family had any type of cancer,” she said.

But if a patient without certain risk factors required an MRI or ultrasound to confirm a mammogram result, they were still charged a copay — one that many couldn’t afford.

Although Kristen could afford her tests, it was clear from online support groups that “the barrier is real,” she said. “There are so many women on there talking about how costs are preventing them from getting the full extent of the care they need.”

So in 2025, as Kristen recovered from five months of chemotherapy, 25 doses of radiation, and multiple surgeries to treat cancer that had spread into lymph nodes, Farry worked on legislation with state Rep. Gina Curry, D-Upper Darby, to ensure that patients over 40 with only average risk of breast cancer could get supplemental breast cancer imaging without copays. The new bill also covers mammograms and follow-up imaging for women under 40 when prescribed by a doctor.

The legislation ensures Pennsylvania law aligns with a federal recommendation issued in 2024 that will require Affordable Care Act plans to cover follow-up imaging for certain patients beginning in 2026.

On Nov. 10, Kristen completed what the family hopes is her last surgery. On Nov. 24, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Farry and Curry’s bill into law. And beginning in late January, Pennsylvania-regulated insurers will be required to offer the no-cost screenings to more patients.

Kristen, a former Langhorne councilwoman, kept working as an executive for a local behavioral health nonprofit throughout her treatment, Farry said, and parenting their kids Jacob, now 7, and Charlotte, 5.

Two of Kristen’s coworkers at the health system have been diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 45 in recent years, she said. “Anecdotally, you can completely tell that it’s increasing.”

Breast cancer rates are rising in women under 40, researchers have found.

The Farrys are grateful for the support from family, friends and community during Kristen’s treatment, the state senator said — although it was hard to get used to, at first. “We’re usually the helpers, not the helped.”

The outpouring came from people in the Capitol too, Farry said — not just because Kristen is his wife, but because she used to work there and had grown up in Harrisburg, where he said friends remember the blue 1973 Volkswagen Beetle she drove back then. Kristen often mentioned to Frank how much she loved that car, she said.

At Kristen’s last chemo treatment, Farry surprised his wife with her second ’73 bug — this one in pink.

Kristen described the new screening law as “the low-hanging fruit advocacy,” emphasizing that she, her husband and other advocates aim to do more.

What’s next for PA cancer screening legislation

Farry said he and other legislators are working on similar bills for colonoscopies, prostate screenings, and other preventative tests.

“The insurance industry isn’t going to be happy,” Farry said.

“We talk about affordability, cost of living,” he added, and this type of legislation “hopefully will avoid one of our PA residents…deciding ‘I can’t really afford to get this test done’.”

That doesn’t mean Farry would necessarily support a “Medicare for All” insurance model, which other politicians have argued could make it easier to ensure no-cost diagnostic testing. Farry sees a single-payer system as a whole “other issue,” he said.

The Farry family decided from the beginning to share Kristen’s struggle publicly, Farry said. They hoped that, as with the bill, sharing her story might “save lives of people you will never meet.”

It was only after the bill passed last month Farry learned the law may help someone he did know.

Stephanie Fischer, a pharmaceutical worker in Bensalem, met Farry years ago when she worked at the Capitol.

Fischer often needs ultrasounds in addition to mammograms. But this year, she skipped the ultrasound — she’s currently unemployed, and her Pennie marketplace copays are high. She chooses to buy her stroke-preventing blood thinner instead, she said.

But next year, Fischer plans to get the ultrasound — she believes it’ll now be free under her old friend’s bill.