Nebraska lawmakers are set to wrestle over a new cancer insurance bill that is coming to the Legislature.
The bill concerns the use of chemotherapy pills and other such medications and whether or not insurance companies will have to provide coverage for these treatments. Typically, insurers provide coverage for cancer treatments given intravenously, but do not cover oral medications. In some cases, oral treatments are effective in stopping cancer, but insurers have claimed that coverage for this type of medication would be too expensive for both consumers and insurance companies.
Senator Jeremy Nordquist, one of the key supporters for the bill, claims that insurers are misrepresenting the actual cost of this coverage. According to Nordquist, coverage for oral care would only cost an additional 5 cents to $1.50. Insurers argue that there is an aggregate effect that will contribute to the cost of this type of coverage. This effect will be compounded by the fact that pharmaceutical companies may choose to increase the prices of these medications as a way to squeeze more money fro
m the insurance companies that provide coverage.
Whatever the case may be, legislators have taken to citing complaints from consumers who claim that their cancer treatments are far too expensive to be feasible. Lawmakers are keen to find ways to provide affordable insurance coverage for those suffering from cancer and believe that this new legislation will accomplish that goal handily.
