Even if the court ruling is upheld, health plans would continue to have to cover some cancer screenings at no cost to their enrollees:
Screening mammograms for breast cancer are recommended by HRSA, so that coverage would continue to be required.
HRSA also recommends pap smears with HPV tests for women age 30 and older, so that coverage wouldn’t change. But USPTST has issued updated pap smear guidelines for younger women, which could be affected by the court ruling.
Colonoscopy screening was already recommended by USPSTF prior to March 2010, so it would still have to be covered. But the guidelines were updated in 2021 to include people as young as age 45. Screening recommendations previously started at age 50, and could revert to that guideline if the court ruling is upheld.
Lung cancer screening for current and former smokers was added to the USPSTF list of recommendations in 2013, so it’s an example of a screening test that health plans would no longer have to cover if the ruling is upheld, since it was added after the ACA was signed into law.