Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 20, 1994 TAG: 9401200217
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"I would have never dreamed that I would ever be faced with this type of dilemma," said Toni Sayre of Portsmouth, who had to raise money to pay for her bone-marrow transplant last May.
"This is a real burden on the person trying to deal with their cancer and keep a good mental attitude," Sayre told a legislative commission studying mandated health benefits.
"Stress will impact my immune system," said Jon Montgomery, a Richmond woman who raised $15,000 for a down payment on her transplant.
The commission voted 5-2 to recommend the bill, which goes to the House of Delegates Corporations, Insurance and Banking Committee.
The commission on mandated health benefits held a public hearing on a bill by Del. Mary Christian, D-Hampton, to require that insurance companies offer coverage of bone-marrow transplants for breast cancer patients.
The state's largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, offers the coverage to about 1 percent of the 1.8 million Virginians it insures.
Rod Mathews, a Blue Cross and Blue Shield vice president, said other insurers that cover the operation "do it for other reasons than the scientific proof."
But physicians, lawyers and cancer patients said the operation is no longer experimental and its average cost has gone down from $150,000 to $73,000. Physicians said the mortality rate is less than 4 percent, but Mathews said it is as high as 10 percent.
"It is not proven to prolong life relative to conventional therapy," he said.
Of the 4,000 women in Virginia diagnosed with breast cancer each year, about 260 need the operation, said Dr. Elizabeth Harden, a Newport News surgeon.
"We are not talking about transplanting every woman with breast cancer," she said.
Mary Scott Guest spoke as her husband, Del. Andy Guest, R-Front Royal, underwent a blood stem transplant for his cancer treatment in Richmond.
"This is a medical decision. This is not a decision that should be made by any member of Blue Cross and Blue Shield or any other insurer," Guest said.
A handful of states require that insurers offer coverage of bone-marrow transplants for breast cancer. About half the major insurers in Virginia already cover the procedure.
A commission member, Del. George Heilig, D-Norfolk, said requiring the coverage to be offered could place a burden on small businesses who buy health insurance for their workers.
Heilig chairs the insurance committee that will vote on the bill.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB