Opinion: Support An Act to reduce incidence and death from pancreatic cancer

Nov 8, 2022
To the editor:
 
Both our House & Senate in Massachusetts recently passed a bill that will improve access to care not just for cancer patients, but for everyone in Massachusetts. The legislation passed will reform a practice known as step therapy. Through step therapy, a patient may be required to try, then fail, on alternative drugs selected by their insurance company before coverage is granted for the medication prescribed by the patient’s health care provider.
 
I want to thank our legislature for passing this critical legislation and Governor Charlie Baker for signing it into law, but I want to specifically thank my legislators, Senator Mark Montigny and Representative Chris Markey, for allowing this legislation to pass unanimously. When step therapy is allowed to occur, the protocols of the process limit a health care provider’s ability to tailor care to individual patient needs causing poor outcomes or unnecessary suffering.
 
My fellow volunteers at the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and I look forward to working with the legislature next year to continue improving cancer patients' lives. I ask all our legislators to please support An Act to reduce incidence and death from pancreatic cancer in the 2023-2024 legislative session of the 193rd General Court, which begins in January.  
 
Brock N. Cordeiro,
Dartmouth