Oral Chemo Leaves Legislators with Questions, Referred to Summer Study

Drug companies are coming up with pills that do the same job of fighting cancer as intravenous chemotherapy. But Tennessee lawmakers say too many questions are unanswered to make a decision on whether to require health insurance plans to cover the costs of the pills. A proposal to require such coverage was sent to a summer study committee on Tuesday.

Insurance companies oppose the new measure, calling it a “mandate” that restricts their ability to shape health plans that are affordable for patients and businesses.

Representative David Shepard, a Dickson Democrat, says he worries about driving up prices and says lawmakers need to use the extra study time to find out what’s happened in states that have adopted similar requirements.

“As a pharmacist I have been trying to find out from the other states what impact it’s had on the cost of healthcare.”

Shepard says there are at least 30 new oral chemotherapy pills coming onto the market – and they’re all expensive.

He told the House Commerce Committee that the summer study should not be an excuse to bury the bill – and that he expects a report and a proposal to come back to the next General Assembly in 2013.

The bill is cleared to go to the Senate floor but the upper chamber is expected to follow the House’s lead by putting it aside for a year.

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Bristol Republican Jon Lundberg, the vice-chairman of House Commerce, says the study committee will meet with the state Department of Health and insurance companies to have their questions answered.

Lundberg, like Shepard, wonders what patients access to the oral method is.

“Is it the same kind of drug administered orally versus intravenous? So, if it is, I think everyone would say well, it would be a lot more convenient to take a pill rather than have an IV put in your arm.”

The bill, HB 1087 Casada /SB 1985 Stewart, is emotional for many people – state Representative Curry Todd last week urged fellow lawmakers to vote for the bill and revealed he suffers from a form of leukemia.

Chemotherapy Coverage Debate Prompts Lawmaker’s Admission: ‘I Have Cancer’