Update on Back to Olympia ...WSHIP Lite: A Bad Idea

A couple of things have happened since my lobbying efforts in Olympia and my posts on this blog about the high cost of cancer care, in particular the two drugs, Avastin and Herceptin.

The first was a phone call yesterday from State Sen. Parlette, assuring me that legislation that would increase the $1 million cap on my state health insurance to $2 million was likely to pass with an emergency clause that would make it go into effect as soon as the governor signs it.

Don't know what I'm talking about here? Read:

Field Trip No. 2: Lobbying in Olympia

Back to Olympia ... Field Trip No. 3

That was good news, of course. A huge relief, actually, but I was expecting it.

I'm not happy about other aspects of the bill. As I see it, the biggest problem with WSHIP is that the premiums are higher than sick people can afford to pay. So they don't enroll. See WSHIP Is a Failure.

Rather than addressing that by finding a way to cut the premiums so that more of the people rejected by private insurance plans every year could afford to enroll in the high risk pool, Sen. Parlette's bill, SB 5712 proposes allowing more "flexibility" in WSHIP to allow insurers to offer plans with lower premiums but also fewer benefits.

This is a bad idea—WSHIP Lite, I’m calling it. The people in the pool need more benefits, if anything, not less. I pay between $5,000 and $10,000 a year for necessary medical services not covered by WSHIP.

One example, I see a therapist every week. Absolutely necessary for someone like me who is living with a disease that cannot be cured. But WSHIP only pays for something like 10 therapy visits a year.

I told the senator that the biggest problem with WSHIP is that the premiums are too high. Before you do any other tinkering with the plan, please cut the premiums, or subsidize them, so that the people it was designed to help can afford to enroll. But she didn't hear me, so don't expect to see this happen.

E-mail from Genentech
I've had "Contact Genentech" on my to-do list for weeks now. I want to ask the company why Herceptin and Avastin are so expensive, and why Herceptin, at least, costs so much less in the UK. But before I could get to this, I received an e-mail from a Genentech employee who had read at least some of my blog.

Here's the message, from Krysta Pellegrino, in Genentech Corporate Relations:

"I saw your Assertive Cancer Patient blog posting, and wanted to be sure you had information about Genentech's patient assistance programs. We can offer several levels of support to eligible patients, ranging from reimbursement support, referrals to co-pay charities, and free products (including for eligible patients who hit their lifetime insurance max).

"More information is available at www.spoconline.com, or by calling (888) 249-4918.

"I hope you find this helpful, and can share this information with other patients who may have situations similar to yours."

I did know about the free drugs, that was one of my two back-up plans if I did find myself without health insurance before the end of the year (the other was to apply for charity care from my cancer center). I'll be calling Krysta next week to ask her some questions.

@ Jeanne Sather 2007.