Requires insurance coverage for certain inhalers at no cost

• Democratic38

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Gustavo Rivera says this is needed

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, more than 20 million adults and over 4.5 million children were living with asthma in 2022. Despite this reality, nothing has been done to reduce the cost of asthma inhalers as the price of each life-saving device can be as high as $640 a month in some instances. Even with health insurance, individuals are subjected to significant expenses to access this life-saving medication. Typically, patients experience these costs through plan deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance charges generally referred to as cost shar- ing. The results are predictable and devastating. Without consistent access to inhalers, people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are more likely to get sick, be hospitalized, and die. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has found that asthma kills about 10 people every day, while COPD kills about 390 people every day and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Asthma and COPD also place a strain on our healthcare system. Per the CDC, each year, asthma is responsible for more than 1.7 million emergency depart- ment visits and over $50 billion in healthcare costs. According to the New York State Department of Health, in New York alone more than 1.4 million adults have asthma. The issue is prevalent among children as well. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that in 2021, New York State had an estimated 315, 000 children with asthma, which was about 8.9% of children in the state. The concept of cost-sharing was developed to reduce the unnecessary use of medical services and supplies. To apply cost sharing to life-saving medications connected to chronic diseases such as asthma highlights a failing of our current system. We are charging those with illnesses more money to access life-saving services and medications that no reasonable person could call unnecessary. This bill will directly address the issue by eliminating cost-sharing for these medications similar to the elimi- nation of cost-sharing for insulin, which was signed into law in 2024. This bill is an important step forward to redressing the failings of how our current healthcare system is designed.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.