The fate of oral chemotherapy legislation remains unclear. With the Senate overwhelmingly passing a bill requiring insurers to cover oral chemotherapy, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos indicated Tuesday that his chamber could still take up the measure, but also amend it.
“We’ll have a discussion in our caucus on Thursday to see where our members are at, to see if changes can be made to make the bill as effective as possible, mirroring what other states have already done, and then we’ll move forward,” Vos said on the Assembly floor Tuesday.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca raised a red flag over the prospect of any changes to the bill. “I’ve been around here a long time, and I’ve seen it all, and I know exactly how this works,” Barca said. “You add a little amendment here, you send it back to the Senate, and then low and behold they’re not for that amendment, and they non-concur, and you say ‘oh what a shame.’”
Assembly Democrats provided at times emotional testimony in support of an unsuccessful effort to pull the bill for an immediate vote after it passed the Senate Tuesday, 30-2.