Gerald E. Connolly Esophageal Cancer Awareness Act of 2025

Esophageal cancer awareness is the focus of this bill, which would order a federal report on care and screening in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). The bill would require the Comptroller General to deliver a report within one year that estimates FEHBP spending for enrollees diagnosed with esophageal cancer and measures how often high-risk members get screening consistent with established guidelines. The bill’s findings cite rapidly rising incidence, including a more than 700 percent increase in recent decades and the fastest increase among men, high mortality of about one death every 36 minutes, a five-year survival near 1 in 5, and that early detection can raise five-year survival to about 49 percent. It highlights 2022 guidance recommending screening for people with three or more risk factors such as male sex, non-Hispanic White ethnicity, age 50 or older, history of smoking, chronic GERD, obesity, or family history of Barrett’s esophagus or esophageal adenocarcinoma.