Senate Bill sb2652

    Florida Senate - 2002        (NP)                      SR 2652

    By Senator Saunders





    25-2084A-02

  1                    Senate Resolution No. ____

  2         A resolution supporting Medicare coverage for

  3         oral cancer drugs.

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  5         WHEREAS, cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and

  6  mortality in the State of Florida and throughout the nation,

  7  and

  8         WHEREAS, cancer is disproportionately a disease of the

  9  elderly, with more than half of all cancer diagnoses occurring

10  in persons age 65 or older, who are thus dependent on the

11  federal Medicare program for provision of cancer care, and

12         WHEREAS, treatment with anti-cancer drugs is the

13  cornerstone of modern cancer care, elderly cancer patients

14  must have access to potentially life-extending drug therapy,

15  but the Medicare program's coverage of drugs is limited to

16  injectable drugs or oral drugs that have an injectable

17  version, and

18         WHEREAS, the nation's investment in biomedical research

19  has begun to bear fruit with a compelling array of new oral

20  anti-cancer drugs that are less toxic, more effective, and

21  more cost-effective than existing therapies, but, because such

22  drugs do not have an injectable equivalent, they are not

23  covered by Medicare, and

24         WHEREAS, noncoverage of these important new products

25  leaves many Medicare beneficiaries confronting the choice of

26  either sustaining substantial out-of-pocket personal costs or

27  selecting more toxic, less effective treatments that are

28  covered by the program, and

29         WHEREAS, Medicare's failure to cover oral anti-cancer

30  drugs leaves at risk many beneficiaries who are suffering from

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    Florida Senate - 2002        (NP)                      SR 2652
    25-2084A-02




  1  blood-related cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma,

  2  as well as cancers of the breast, lung, and prostate, and

  3         WHEREAS, certain members of the United States Congress

  4  have recognized the necessity of Medicare coverage for all

  5  oral anti-cancer drugs and have introduced legislation in the

  6  107th congress to achieve that result (H.R. 1624; S. 913),

  7  NOW, THEREFORE,

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  9  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

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11         That the Florida Senate expresses its support for the

12  consideration by the Congress of the United States of

13  legislation requiring the Medicare program to cover all oral

14  anti-cancer drugs.

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