Scripps News-ProPublica investigation sparks Michigan cancer drug bill
Newsy
A Michigan bill would make it clear that a new generation of cancer drugs must be covered by state health plans.
Editor's Note: This story is part of a partnership with ProPublica and reporters Maya Miller and Robin Fields.
A Michigan lawmaker has introduced new legislation, moved by a Scripps News and ProPublica joint investigation into the insurance company that denied a man coverage of cancer treatment, despite his state’s decades-old requirement that state health plans cover drugs for cancer.
“Look, when people are fighting cancer, they need every possible tool in the toolbox to be able to beat that cancer,” state Sen. Jeff Irwin, of Ann Arbor, told Scripps News. “And it should be their doctor, not their insurance company, who's deciding what course of treatment makes sense for that,” he said.
If enacted, Senate Bill 738 would explicitly require insurers to cover a new generation of cancer treatments, specifying that gene therapy and immunotherapy must be covered. The change could ultimately impact many cancer patients across Michigan — but it comes too late for Forrest VanPatten, whose story was at the center of our joint investigation.
In a tearful interview with our Scripps News Grand Rapids station just days before he died in February 2020, the 50-year-old father of two said he felt like his insurance company was casting him aside.
