Specialty Tier Call to Action
Contact Your Federal Legislator and Make Your Voice Heard
A number of health insurance companies throughout the country are adopting a new specialty tier pricing system for expensive drugs which require patients to pay much more for life-saving and disease-stabilizing medications. Insurers are abandoning the traditional arrangement where patients pay a fixed co-pay amount and instead charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 25 to 33 percent. This can amount to thousands of dollars a month for vital medications.
The Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2012 (H.R. 4209) was introduced in March by US House of Representatives David McKinley (R-WV) and Lois Capps (D-CA) to address this important issue. H.R. 4209 requires health insurers to place specialty drugs within the same classification as Tier III non-preferred drugs. It would allow people living with serious devastating health conditions to continue to have access to the critical treatments which they need in order to live active and productive lives.
For individuals with serious health conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, hemophilia, hepatitis C and some cancers access to appropriate prescription drugs can greatly improve disease prognosis and positively impact quality of life. Specialty tier pricing often applies to the most expensive medications for which there are no lower cost equivalents and tend to be new, innovative treatments such as biologics which are produced in lesser quantities and not available as generics. As you can imagine with all of the novel treatments in the pipeline right now this policy has the potential to impede drug research and development.
Please contact your legislator and urge them to co-sponsor H.R. 4209 The Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2012. Make your voice heard and help to stop these unfair and discriminatory cost-sharing practices. Please share with others and ask them to take action. Thank you very much.
CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVE and submit your comments and support for H.R. 4209.
Sample text to cut and paste:
Dear Representative ________,
Subject: H.R. 4209
A number of health insurance companies throughout the country are adopting a new specialty tier pricing system for expensive drugs which require patients to pay much more for life-saving and disease-stabilizing medications. Insurers are abandoning the traditional arrangement where patients pay a fixed co-pay amount and instead charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs.
H.R. 4209 requires health insurers to place specialty drugs within the same classification as Tier III non-preferred drugs. I am writing today to ask your support of H.R. 4209 so that people with serious illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, hemophilia, hepatitis C and some cancers will have access to the medications they need in order to live active and productive lives.
Sincerely,
