Numerous health care-related bills cleared the House today, including one to provide more transparency for consumers about premium increases, and another to help the state prepare for the implementation of federal health care reform.
One bill, sponsored by freshman legislator Rep. Laurie Jinkins, will help Washingtonians who are battling cancer. It requires insurers to provide comparable coverage for both oral and intravenous cancer drugs. Often times, oral chemotherapy is the better treatment, but patient co-pays for this can be thousands of dollars more than IV treatment, even though oral chemotherapy can usually be done at home and IV treatment requires a trip to the hospital.
Here, in her speech on the House floor, Rep. Jinkins explains why this parity is important not just for patients, but for their families as well:
