Coles Act fixes this and protects patients from these predatory practices and ensures
by ensuring that all copays count towards the patient's out-of-pocket deductible.
The Senate Health Committee has already held a hearing and has passed this legislation
out of committee with a unanimous vote.
We are now asking the Senate to give Coles Act, which is co-sponsored by 20 of 33 senators
of floor vote.
We are also asking the Assembly Health Committee to give Coles Act, which has 31 co-sponsors
in the Assembly, a hearing yet this month.
We need the legislature to get this done this section.
Patients can't wait any longer.
These copay accumulator policies are preventing patients from getting access to needed medications
and that has to stop.
Insurance plans are rapidly adopting these policies and they are becoming increasingly
common.
As a result, more and more patients are reaching out to us with stories about going to the
pharmacy counter to pick up their medications and being told they will have to pay thousands
of dollars out of their own pockets in order to receive their medications.
This is unaffordable for many Wisconsinites who then have a step to choose between rent,
food, or the medications they need to live their lives.
This has to stop.
This has gone on for far too long and patients need help now.
If the legislative body is given the opportunity to vote on Coles Act, we are confident that
Coles Act will pass.
We're just asking for that chance.
Bring Coles Act forward and vote on it.
Twenty-five states have already passed similar legislation.
It's time for Wisconsin to get this done.
Stainny Lythmy today is Coles's father, Bill Schmittnacht, and he has some thoughts he
would like to share.
Bill?
Thank you, Robert.
Well, as Rob said, I'm Bill Schmittnacht, and I'm Coles Dad.
As we approach the two-year anniversary of my son Coles Dad, I wish I could stand here
and say that his story was rare.
It's not.
Coles was twenty-two years old.
He had his whole life ahead of him.
Like millions of Americans, he depended on timely, reliable access to medication.
What failed him wasn't the modern medicine.
What failed him was the system that puts a price tag on people's lives, where profit
is allowed to outweigh patient safety.
That's why we're here today to talk about Coles Act, SB 203 AB 173.
At its core, Coles Act is about one simple principle, patience.
Patience must come before profit.
One of the most critical protections in this legislation is patient choice, especially
when it comes to mailover pharmacy.
Mailover is often marketed as a cheaper, more effective, but families across.
Wisconsin know the reality of that, medications are delayed, shipments get lost, temperature
sensitive drugs are mishandled, refills don't arrive when they're supposed to.
For patients with asthma, diabetes, heart disease, mental health conditions, a delay
isn't an inconvenience.
It's a serious safety risk.
Coles Act makes it clear no patient should ever be forced to a mailover pharmacy.
As their only option, I should say that.
Patients deserve access to the pharmacies that keep them safe, not the ones that maximize
corporate profit.
People pharmacies play a role no warehouse could ever actually cover.
You can think about it.
They catch dangerous drug interactions.
They notice when refills are missed, they answer the phone when someone needs help.
The human connection is not a luxury, it's a layer of safety.
When we remove it, patients pay the price.
Coles Act also establishes something long, and I hold hardly on this, but long overdue,
fiduciary responsibility.
If a company is managing health care benefits, it should be legally required to act in the
best interest of the patient, not in the interest of profit, or hidden rebates or backed behind
the same fees or any of that stuff.
Fiduciary rules mean transparency, it means accountability, it means medication decisions
are driven by patient safety and clinical need, not profit.
Now here's where we are.
We have the momentum, as Rob mentioned.
We currently have enough cosponsors in the Senate to move this bill forward.
We ask that they do so.
What we need now is action, though, and that's from the Assembly.
We need the Assembly Health and Aging Committee to call a hearing, get the vote done, and
get this legislation passed this session.
Families cannot wait another legislative session.
Patients cannot afford more delays, and life should never be collateral damage in a profit
driven system.
Coles should be here today, he's here in presence, but he should be building his life, but he
found out that breathing isn't an option.
And access to life-saving medication shouldn't be either.
Since he isn't here with us today, we have a responsibility to act now.
Thank you.
We'd be happy to take any questions, if you have any.
Have you ever any reason as to why all people have solved in the Senate?
I think there's a lot of opposition from the insurance industry, and that I think has
been our biggest problem at this point.
They made some arguments that just aren't true.
They've said that the number one argument we hear is that this is going to drive up costs.
We know that's not the case, and states that have already passed this, premiums aren't
higher, and in states that haven't passed legislation like this, premiums aren't lower.
The other argument that we've heard them make is that this will drive patients to more expensive
brand name medications, but there's a provision in this bill that says it only applies if
there's not a generic equivalent.
So that's not possible.
Those are the two arguments we hear.
We can refute both of them, but they seem to be gaining some traction.
Have you been in contact with Assembly leadership or leadership in the Assembly Health Committee
to see if there's any sort of timetable?
We believe that we will get a hearing in the Assembly, but we need that hearing to be in
January.
You all know the time, the clock is running out.
From what we're hearing, that they're going to break lightly around Valentine's Day.
So we've got basically a month to get this done.
So we need that hearing in January, and we need to get it out at committee in January,
so we have an opportunity to get this to the floor.
If this doesn't get done, the session, do you expect you still go after this in future
sessions?
We're not giving up.
We'll come back next session if we have to.
We don't have to do that.
And patients can't wait.
I've met patients who are literally telling me they're not going to take their medication
if this copay accumulator is applied to them because they can't afford it.
They can't wait.
But if we have to come back next session, we're not giving up.
Thanks.