No one should have to suffer due to the high cost of life-saving medication. The state of Illinois just became the first to require that insurance companies cover the full cost of epinephrine injectors for kids.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker just signed a law requiring companies that provide health insurance within the state to pay for medically-necessary epinephrine injectors for cases of severe allergic reactions in children 18 and under. In the event of an anaphylactic reaction, an epinephrine injection can be a life-saving tool to open airways and minimize inflammation.

Governor Pritzker tweeted that the new law is “a big step forward in protecting our children and families.”

Parents are required to provide epinephrine injectors at schools and camps, but they expire within a short period and have to be replaced. That, added to an epinephrine shortage in the past, has added to rising costs for the medication across the country.

“With steady increases in food allergies and other serious allergic conditions, families are relying on EpiPens more than ever before,” Illinois State Senator Julie Morrison said in a statement. “We should be doing everything we can to expand access to affordable lifesaving drugs and medicines. No child with a serious allergy should be without an epinephrine injector because they cannot afford one.”

—Shahrzad Warkentin

Featured photo: Quote Catalogue via Flickr

 

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