Senators introduce legislation to lower cost of cancer treatments
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced legislation to lower the cost of cancer treatments.
Senator Moran said the senators introduced the bipartisan legislation to make certain patients who receive oral medications are not hit with thousands of dollars in unaffordable out-of-pocket costs that health plans routinely cover for patients receiving traditional IV chemotherapy treatments.
According to Senator Moran, the Cancer Drug Parity Act responds to the recent improvements in oral medications for cancer by preventing insurers from charging cancer patients higher copayments for those medications than for chemotherapy medicine delivered intravenously. An estimated 2 million Americans will be or are diagnosed with cancer this year. A study on patients prescribed oral cancer medications found that one in eight patients faced copayments of $2,000 or more for their first prescription.