Bill eliminating co-payment on mastectomies passes House

By PEDER SCHAEFER
Posted 6/21/18

By PEDER S. SCHAEFER The House approved legislation Tuesday introduced by House Majority Leader K. Joseph Shekarchi, from Warwick, to eliminate co-pays and deductibles from mastectomies.

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The House approved legislation Tuesday introduced by House Majority Leader K. Joseph Shekarchi, from Warwick, to eliminate co-pays and deductibles from mastectomies.

The bill requires insurers to cover mastectomies and to pay the entire cost of the procedure, with no out of pocket expenses on the part of the patient.

“It’s a really important bill,” said Shekarchi on Tuesday, minutes after the bill has passed on the House floor. “I introduced the bill last year and it mandates no co-pays for a mastectomy.”

In the current law covering what insurers do and do not have to cover, mastectomies are not required to be in the insurance plan, but this bill eliminates those portions of the law, and requires insurers to pay the full cost of any treatment, including prosthetics and plastic surgery after the procedure.

“There was heartfelt, compelling testimony in favor of this bill from women who had struggled with huge co-pays,” said Shekarchi. “Some people testified paying up to $10,000 before and after the treatment.”

In a press release, Shekarchi is quoted as saying, “Breast cancer is a very emotional cancer, one that can leave even those who fight it very successfully with a tremendous feeling of loss. That loss should not be compounded by struggles to pay for their treatment, heal and recover their lives.”

On Wednesday Shekarchi talked about people he knows in both his private and professional life who have struggled with breast cancer and the high medical bills associated with treatment. His desire to make this bill law started two years, and should come to a close with Governor Gina Raimondo’s signature sometime this week.

The bill is supported by the American Cancer Society’s Rhode Island chapter and the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation.

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