The strong Louisiana Senate has discontinued a proposal requiring insurance companies to cover fertility-preserving procedures for cancer patients seeking radiation, chemotherapy, and other treatments.
Last week the Louisiana Senate Finance Committee House building 537 It’s too expensive for a state where state workers and public school teachers would have had to pay to get compensation. Louisiana would also have had to bear the additional cost of private health insurance purchased from the state insurance exchange.
Many Louisiana health insurance plans do not currently cover egg and sperm extraction from people who must be treated to cause infertility. This includes cancer patients who are forced to pay themselves to maintain the opportunity to have children.
The failed law, sponsored by Congressman Paula Davis, R-Baton Rouge, aimed to bridge the gap between the new health insurance coverage of 2023 and the existing health insurance coverage of 2024.
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Davis has significantly narrowed down her proposal over the past few weeks, hoping to get at least one narrow group of insured fertility services. Earlier versions required a wider range of fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization, for couples who are not of the same sex.
Davis’s first bill is based on a similar law in Texas, which may require you to pay for in vitro fertilization with private insurance. According to proponents of the proposal, Arkansas also demands a health care plan to cover some of those treatments.
Parliamentarians are, in fact, among the relatively small number of people in Louisiana who are receiving fertility treatments covered by insurance plans. LSU First Providing medical insurance to LSU employees, legislators, and legislative staff – is the only state-provided plan to voluntarily pay for fertility services. Some private insurance companies in the state also voluntarily cover insurance, but they are not part of the major providers.
In her broader proposal, Davis came across the opposition to life from the rights of insurance companies, Catholic bishops, and the major anti-abortion organization, Louisiana. Insurers said it would be too expensive to provide in vitro fertilization coverage, raising premiums by hundreds of dollars.
The Catholic Bishop and Louisiana’s Right to Life have expressed moral opposition to in vitro fertilization, which often leads to embryonic destruction. Ben Clapper, executive director of Right to Life, Louisiana, said his tissue has problems with disposal because he considers embryos to resemble human life.
A handful of lawmakers were furious at the opposition of the Catholic Church and its supporters of the anti-abortionist. Acting Tanner Maggie, Speaker of the House R-Houma, said that although devised by in vitro fertilization, the church is always ready to accept his class check for his triplet daughter to attend a Catholic school.
“If they really disagree with it, they shouldn’t take my money,” Maggie said on the house floor before voting on the bill. “It’s the most hurtful, ridiculous, and eccentric to sit here and tell me that my three beautiful girls are somehow unnatural.”
Nevertheless, to increase the likelihood that the bill will pass the Senate, Davis has removed the insurance requirements for in vitro fertilization and some other fertility drugs. The latest version of the law only required that eggs and sperm be extracted and frozen separately, not as fertilized eggs or embryos.
Members of the Senate Finance Committee were willing to pass the bill with state government price tags and refused to approve the bill if state workers and public school teachers were dismissed. Davis has decided to exempt the health insurance provided by the Group Benefits Department, which provides insurance for most state employees and public school teachers, from the proposed fertility preservation requirements in order to keep state costs down. I was willing, but the members of the committee did not. Go with the compromised one.
Proponents of the bill claim that the estimated cost of providing fertility treatment is rising.
A financial analysis of the health insurance impact on state insurance exchanges, estimated at $ 1.6 million to $ 4.9 million annually by mid-2026, is based solely on data provided by Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Louisiana. I am. Lobbying against Davis’ law. As a result, some lawmakers questioned whether the state’s financial analysis was more accurate.
At a hearing last week, Senator Gary Smith of D-Norco said: “That is, this is all a scam.”
The Louisiana Department of Insurance told Smith that the federal government requires the use of information from Blue Cross and Blue Shield when calculating the impact of insurance plan obligations.
“If they give us the wrong number, the federal government demands that we accept it,” said Frank Opelka, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Insurance Department, in a hearing last week. “I’m not saying I agree with that.”
Former state congressman Julie Stokes, a breast cancer survivor and advocate for cancer patients, also estimated the cost of covering the fertility-preserving services of state workers and teachers at the Group Benefits Department. He said it seemed expensive.
Proponents believe that only an estimated 2,200 people annually, including those in the private sector, were able to take advantage of the fertility preservation coverage provided by Davis’ latest bill. Still, the Office of Group Benefits estimates that treatment can cost as much as $ 1.8 million annually. This is far more than found in other states, Davis said.
“Usually in other states, it’s from 1 cent per member to 5 cents per member,” she said.
Her bill is dead this year, but Davis is expected to seek approval from legislators A study of the costs of imposing insurance requirements to cover fertility treatmentIncluding in vitro fertilization, she can get a more accurate cost estimate when preparing next year’s proposal.
Fallout from the fight for infertility has spilled over into other legislative issues.House Shelved the legislation Important for Senate Finance Commission Chairman Body White, R-Baton Rouge, in retaliation for the killing of Davis’ bill.
House leadership has refused to move White’s controversial bill to redraw the boundaries of public schools in Central City to rule out planned cities with many black residents. Democrats and Republicans, especially in the Baton Rouge region, were already opposed to bills that characterize opponents as racists.
