[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10111]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           ORAL CHEMOTHERAPY

  (Mr. HIGGINS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. HIGGINS. Madam Speaker, every day more and more cancer patients 
across the country are denied coverage for smart drugs because 
insurance companies refuse to cover them.
  A resident in my district called my office last month to say that her 
insurance company refused to cover an oral chemotherapy drug she was 
prescribed to fight her cancer because her policy only covered generic 
drugs.
  Madam Speaker, the insurance paradigm has not kept pace with the 
science, and this is unacceptable. That is why I have introduced H.R. 
2746, the Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act, to mandate parity in 
coverage for all forms of chemotherapy, whether they're administered 
orally or through the vein.
  I urge colleagues to support this legislation because cancer 
treatment should be determined by a physician, not by arbitrary and 
outdated insurance policies.

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