The Sente unanimously passed House Bill 364 on Tuesday. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Cyndie Romer, would mandate insurance companies to cover any FDA-approved drug prescribed to treat the side effects of metastatic cancer treatment and prohibits insurance companies from requiring patients first fail to respond to a different drug or prove a history of failure of such drug.
“Insurance companies should not be dictating how doctors and patients treat the symptoms and side effects of metastatic cancer,” said Rep. Romer.
“Those battling cancer, metastatic or isolated, shouldn’t have to wait for mediation their doctors feel will best help them. It’s an added frustration that shouldn’t exist. This bill will end all of that and help ensure a better quality of life for patients.”
HB 364 would require individual, blanket, and group health insurance companies to cover drug treatment for the associated conditions of metastatic cancer in the same way treatment for metastatic cancer is covered.
The most important aspect of the bill is the prohibition on the evil practice of requiring patients first fail to respond to some other non-prescribed drug before covering the prescribed drug. When fighting cancer, time is life. Not money, life. So wasting time on other meds that are not prescribed is literally killing the patient. Wasting life.
The bill now heads to Governor Carney for his signature.
| House Bill 364 — Requiring Insurance Coverage of Treatment of Side Effects of Metastatic Cancer | Currrent Status – House Passed 39-0-2. Senate Passed 21-0. Sent to the Governor. |
| House Sponsors – Romer, Heffernan, Morrison // Dukes | Senate Sponsors – Poore, Hoffner, Sokola |
| House Yes Votes – Baumbach Bolden Bush Carson Chukwuocha Cooke Dorsey-Walker Griffith Harris Heffernan Johnson Lambert Longhurst Matthews Minor-Brown Moore Morrison Neal Osienski Parker-Selby Phillips Romer Schwartzkopf Williams Wilson-Anton // Collins Dukes Gray Hensley Hilovsky Jones-Giltner, Morris Postles Ramone Shupe Smith Spiegelman Vanderwende Yearick | Senate Yes Votes – Brown Gay Hansen Hoffner Huxtable Lockman Mantzavinos McBride Paradee Pinkney Poore Sokola Sturgeon Townsend Walsh // Buckson Hocker Lawson Pettyjohn Richardson Wilson |
| House No Votes – None | Senate No Votes – |
| House Absents or Not Voting – Short, Lynn | Senate Absent or Not Voting – |
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