Iowa ’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed a bill into law eliminating the need for health insurance companies to authorize cancer screenings after they are requested by doctors, making it easier for patients to get treatment. The issue is particularly pressing in the Midwestern state because it has the second-highest rate of cancer diagnoses of all the states in the union. Some 87 of its 99 counties are listed as having cases significantly above the national norm, according to a University of Iowa study in February. The precise reason for that is not known but researchers are expected to turn in a report on their findings in July. In the meantime, the new “Patients First Act” signed by Gov. Reynolds at Monroe County Hospital in Albia will remove a key bureaucratic obstacle for doctors seeking to establish whether their patients have the condition or not.…