Copays on some key medications for asthma, diabetes, and allergic reactions would go away under bills introduced Wednesday in the Michigan Senate.
The bills would require health insurance companies to cover the entire cost of prescription inhalers, insulin, and epinephrine.
State Senator Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton) cosponsors the package. He said getting rid of the copay for those medications would greatly help Michigan families.
“These are three pieces of medicine that we know are widely used by our population and we know would directly impact their bottom line for residents, as they’re dealing with making budgeting decisions. So, if we can save a family $50 a month on a copay, that’s a big deal,” Camilleri told reporters after Senate session Thursday.
He said he hadn’t yet engaged his Republican colleagues on the matter, though that would eventually be necessary to get the bills through the Republican-led state House of Representatives.
Health care affordability bills from both sides of the aisle have struggled to make it to the governor’s desk this term. Both chambers of the Legislature have sat on bills.
That includes measures that would create a state board in charge of capping drug prices, and require hospital price transparency.
Still, state Senator Chedrick Greene (D-Saginaw) said both sides of the political aisle should get behind making the medicines cheaper and more available.
“We can’t do anything without breathing. We can pile all the money, we can pass all the legislation we can, but if we’re struggling to breathe, then we’re not doing anything,” Greene said, making the case for putting partisanship aside. “Just simple, commonsense things that make life easier for some of our most vulnerable people.”
