EVERETT—Everett-based Citrine Health is launching the Washington Health Screening Fund to help pay for breast and cervical cancer screenings for uninsured and underinsured residents across Washington. The effort is to counter reductions in federal support for the state’s Breast, Cervical and Colon Health Program, which the Department of Health has run for 35 years, and which now faces the risk of running out of money in the coming months.
Roughly 87 percent of the program’s funding comes from a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention award. That award for 2026 is about $4 million, $1 million less than two years earlier. The program has lost 20 percent of its funding in the past two years and 60 percent since its peak, while more than $3 million in supplemental federal and state support has expired. State officials have used limited carryforward resources to preserve services so far, but those options are narrowing.
Kerri Mallams, Citrine Health’s executive director, said the organization could serve more than 2,000 women a decade ago. This year it has resources for about 870, and more than 700 people are already enrolled. Enrollment has risen as people lose coverage; more than 400,000 Washington residents lack insurance, and millions more face high out-of-pocket costs that make them effectively underinsured…