After the initial shock of a cancer diagnosis wares off, patients must then deal with the financial burden that goes along with it. But, supporters hope a bill now in the Florida legislature will lighten the financial load by making some cancer treatments more affordable.
Doctors have traditionally treated cancer with intravenous chemotherapy or radiation. But, advances in medicine have made many of these life-saving treatments available in pill form. Republican Representative Debbie Mayfield of Vero Beach has had personal experience with cancer and its treatment.
“My husband passed away with esophageal cancer on September 30th, 2008. Unfortunately he was not able to do any kind of oral treatment; we had to travel to MD Anderson in Houston for a clinical trial,” Mayfield said.
Oral treatments weren’t available for her husband’s cancer, but for many patients the pill can make life easier. Taking oral medication frees people up to continue working and leading normal lives when undergoing treatment. Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Atwater said oral medicine solves many problems associated with the more traditional IV treatment.
“Those who are fighting cancer are not asking everyone around them to change their lifestyle, their needs to turn to them. They want to fight that fight and they should not be placed with the anxiety of wondering where will I go for that IV treatment, who must I have help get that IV treatment, might I expose myself while I’m out that day when my immune system is weak to something else that might be tough for my fight?” Atwater declared.
The cost of providing both IV and oral treatment is comparable, but health insurers reimburse them differently. This makes IV patients only responsible for an office visit co-pay of $20 to $30, whereas, oral medicine is far more expensive, up to $2,500 Lisa Nelson with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society said covering both treatments the same is common sense Florida wouldn’t be the first state to do so.
“21 states and the District of Columbia have now passed these laws which eliminate the discrimination against patients that receive their treatment at the pharmacy counter rather than in a doctors setting,” Nelson pointed out.
Senate Bill 422 and its companion bill in the House won’t force insurance plans to cover cancer treatment, but makes it so that ones that do must cover both types of treatment equally. The senate version of the measure hits its first committee stop on Thursday.
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