LANSING, Mich. — Lawmakers and cancer treatment advocates are rallying in Lansing this legislative session to push through legislation on oral chemotherapy that is over a decade in the making.
"We've been working on this bill for over 15 years," said Molly Medenblik, the American Cancer Society's Michigan Government Relations Director.
"It's not just a piece of legislation that is moving through the process," Medenblik said. "It could be life saving, it could be life changing."
House Bill 4071 would look to balance access by having private insurance companies limit co-pays on oral anticancer medication to $150 for a 30-day supply, or making the companies' financial requirements no more restrictive than for other forms of treatment covered by a policy.
"I think we've come to a good spot and bill where we're at now, that basically, if an insurance plan covers chemotherapy or cancer treatment, that they need to treat the oral drugs the same as they would treat the IV drugs, the intravenous drugs," Medenblik said.
Medenblik said the bill would remove potentially harmful complications.
"There's going to be over 61,000 people in the state of Michigan that are going to hear those words, 'you have cancer' this year," Medenblik said.
"If a doctor does say, 'We want to prescribe you oral chemo, we think that's the best course of action,' then you're not worried about looking at your insurance company," Medenblik said. "'Okay, can you cover this? Or do you cover?' That's just one complication that we would like to remove from this equation."
In Michigan, one of only a handful of states without such guarantees, cancer therapy advocates say options can often be limited.
"Oftentimes, oral chemotherapy costs are outrageously more expensive," said cancer treatment advocate Heather Hall. "Somebody could be spending three, four, ten thousand dollars are some of the numbers I've heard from patients out of pocket for oral chemo, which makes it so out of range for many people to be able to afford that."
A three-time cancer survivor herself, Hall said she knows all too well the exhaustion that comes with chemotherapy treatment. It's why she sees it as vital to make options like oral medication more accessible.
"It's hard enough when you hear the words it's cancer," Hall said. "But, if you can have something to be able to help you stay at home, maintain your normal life - that's priceless. There's no price that you can put on something like that."