Senators introduce bill for equal cancer drug coverage

Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) introduced in the U.S. Senate the Cancer Treatment Parity Act, which would require insurance companies to provide coverage of patient-administered oral and injectable cancer drugs at the same cost to patients as physician-administered IV cancer drugs. The bill would also bar health insurance plans that cover chemotherapy from imposing higher cost-sharing requirements for oral or self-injectable cancer drugs compared to IV cancer drugs. The senators noted that 27 states have already enacted state laws for parity of physician- and self-administered forms of chemotherapy and said in most of these states the change had a "negligible" impact on health insurance premiums. The bill was referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee. ...