An Ohio bill introduced in 2025 would require health insurance agencies to recognize all payments, including coupons or copay assistance, as going to a patient’s deductible.
Sens. Susan Manchester (R-Waynesfield) and Beth Liston (D-Dublin) brought Senate Bill 207 forward in May, about three years after similar legislation died in the Senate in late 2022.
Existing programs generally refuse to count payments, like those from manufacturers made on a patient’s behalf, toward out-of-pocket prescription costs.
Now, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network of Ohio (ACS CAN) is lobbying to see SB 207 get to Gov. Mike DeWine by the end of the year.
Julie Turner, a Hodgkin lymphoma survivor, came to Columbus with a tote bag full of homemade Valentine’s Day cards and Haribo Goldbears for state senators Tuesday. One read: “Roses are red, violets are blue, patients need help, and we’re counting on you.”
“We’re allowing the cost of drugs and the cost of medications to be prohibitive for a lot of people, and that’s very sad,” Turner said in an interview. “I want everyone to have the same opportunities for life after cancer, as I’ve had.”
Turner was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma at 17. Treatment saved her life but left her with numerous conditions—a heart murmur, low bone density and so on. Decades later, after retiring, she needed bridge insurance before qualifying for Medicare.
The bridge insurance did not cover some of the intervention treatments.
“I did my due diligence and contacted a manufacturer,” Turner said. “They actually sent me a debit card that I could use, for $6,000 per injection that I need twice a year. But when I got to the end of the year, I realized that was not counted in my out-of-pocket maximum, so for me, it was virtually useless.”
More than half of states in the U.S. have banned copay accumulator programs.
