CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill that would require insurance companies to provide abuse deterrents alongside prescriptions for opioid painkillers passed the House of Delegates overwhelmingly on Monday.
The 89-9 vote sent the bill to the Senate. One of the bill’s sponsors, Del. Chris Stansbury (R-Kanawha), said on the House floor Monday that opioids aren’t going away, so the next best move is making them safer.
“It’s just another step to make sure patients have access to adequate pain control, while at the same time providing safeguards to help prevent abuse and other problems associated with these types of drugs,” he said.
The bill would require one at least one abuse-deterrent drug product for each active opioid ingredient. Del. Matthew Rohrbach (R-Cabell), a medical doctor, said that unquestionably, the legislation would cause rates to rise but the drug epidemic was such that he didn’t see an alternative.
“Insurance companies aren’t going to want to do this willingly. But we’ve got a huge problem in this state,” Rohrbach said. “And we can’t deny this: it’s going to cost a few dollars more, there’s no doubt about it. But you can’t fail the generic, because failure equals death.”
Del. Tom Fast (R-Fayette) spoke against the bill because he thought it was too similar in principal to Obamacare.
“These policies out there are arms length transactions, and bargain for exchange, and now the federal government has just decided that we’re going to take those terms and write our own policies, our own mandates and our own costs,” said Fast before saying he would vote ‘no’ on the bill.
Del. Denise Campbell (D-Randolph) acknowledged that people want to have freedom when it comes to their medicine, but said that safety should come first.
“I know a lot of us in here do not want anyone to tell us what to do,” she said. “But we are responsible to protect the people of West Virginia.”
While abuse of prescription painkillers in the Mountain State is rampant, many people have legitimate reasons to have such drugs, said Del. Scott Cadle (R – Mason).
“West Virginia–we’re hard working people. And anybody who’s 50 plus years old (and) has worked for a living, most of those people have to have some kind of pain medicine to get through the day,” he said.