Advocates Met with State Reps for WI Legislative Day – All Copays Count Legislation is Top Priority
Community advocates gathered on March 1st at the State Capitol for GLHF’s Wisconsin Legislative Day. We shared stories of life with a bleeding disorder and educated nearly 30 offices about why All Copays Count Legislation is vital to our community.
According to the National Hemophilia Foundation, This legislation is important because those living with bleeding disorders and depending on financial assistance to afford their medications are now being told that the money must come out of their own pocket before they can get their medications. Health plan policies called copay accumulator adjustments no longer count financial assistance toward the patient’s annual deductibles or their out-of-pocket maximum. In addition, a loophole in the Affordable Care Act allows many employer-sponsored health plans to deem certain critical and life-saving prescription drugs as “non-essential,” which significantly increases out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Together, these practices disproportionately target the most financially vulnerable patients with serious chronic health conditions, creating an affordability crisis and essentially undermining pre-existing condition protections.
National Hemophilia Foundation, The AIDS Institute, and many patient communities are concerned about this issue—learn more about the All Copays Count Coalition.