Assembly Actions -
Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE |
|
---|---|
Jan 06, 2010 |
referred to insurance |
Jan 07, 2009 |
referred to insurance |
Senate Bill S191
2009-2010 Legislative Session
Sponsored By
(D, WF) Senate District
Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Insurance Committee
- Introduced
-
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
-
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
-
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
- Delivered to Governor
- Signed By Governor
Actions
co-Sponsors
(D) Senate District
(D, WF) Senate District
(D) Senate District
(D, WF) 28th Senate District
2009-S191 (ACTIVE) - Details
2009-S191 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo
BILL NUMBER: S191 TITLE OF BILL : An act to amend the insurance law, in relation to denying policies imposing drug tiers and cost-sharing for prescription medication PURPOSE OF BILL : To prohibit the implementation of a drug tier that imposes burdensome cost-sharing measures for prescription drugs on certain consumers. SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS : Adds a paragraph to section 3221 of the insurance law which instructs the superintendent to deny any form of group health insurance policy which categorizes prescription medication based on specific disease or cost and charges a cost-sharing percentage for such prescription. Section 3 and 4 adds new paragraph to section 3216 and 4303 of the insurance law stating that every policy which provides coverage for prescription drugs can not categorize prescription medications based on specific disease or cost and charge based on a cost-sharing percentage. JUSTIFICATION : HMOs and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are instituting a new "Tier 4" pricing system for some high-cost drugs that adds another tier of
2009-S191 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K ________________________________________________________________________ 191 2009-2010 Regular Sessions I N S E N A T E (PREFILED) January 7, 2009 ___________ Introduced by Sen. SAMPSON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Insurance AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to denying policies imposing drug tiers and cost-sharing for prescription medication THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM- BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1. Legislative findings. The legislature finds that: (a) The cost of specialty drugs is a great concern. According to IMS Health, about $37.7 billion was spent on specialty drugs in 2003, grow- ing by as much as 26.6 percent since 2002, nearly double the 13.4 percent growth rate in total drug spending. The growth rate for special- ty pharmacy drugs is expected to be 20 percent a year for the foreseea- ble future. Studies and efforts to cope with rising cost drugs, includ- ing specialty drugs, should strongly consider affordability issues and minimizing the impact on patients' health. (b) The current health insurance system is increasingly unaffordable, regularly adding new barriers to access. According to the Kaiser Founda- tion, health insurance premiums rose 6.1 percent in 2007, faster than wages rising at 3.7 percent and inflation rising at 2.6 percent. Annual premiums for family coverage averages $12,106, with workers paying $3,281. Since 2001, premiums for family coverage have increased 78 percent, while wages have gone up 19 percent and inflation has gone up 17 percent. Furthermore, between 2000 and 2003, annual out-of-pocket spending rose $900 or 30 percent for employees with family coverage including insurance premiums, deductibles and drug co-payments, increas- ing from $1,890 to $2,790. (c) Multi-tiered formularies have undoubtedly transformed the pharmacy benefit landscape. By 2005, most workers with employer-sponsored cover- age (74 percent) were enrolled in plans with 3 or more tiers, nearly 3 times the rate in 2000 (27 percent). While cost containment measures are EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted.
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