Expand Fertility Coverage for Young Adult Cancer Patients

Testimony in support of Louisiana HB 689

Mister Chairman, ladies and gentlemen of the Committee. Thank you for hearing HB689 and giving us the opportunity to speak about its potential impact in the lives of women and men in Louisiana.

The bill before you would expand cancer coverage to include fertility preservation. I, along with the 30 other organizations that serve cancer patients and their doctors, strongly support this bill because we know too well the devastating impact cancer can have in the life of a young person.

I was 27 when I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, the deadliest of all blood cancers. Only one in four adults will survive.

There is no screening or early warning. The cancer grows hidden in your bone marrow for months. Then one day it floods your body and your blood becomes the cancer.

I was told, just days after learning I had a life-threatening illness, that saving my life meant more than just losing my hair or putting my career on hold. It meant I was probably never going to have children and for me, that was no easy thing.

My great grandmother came to the United States when she was 16 years old. She was alone. Her family was granted one visa and it was on her to build a life in another country.

My grandmother — her daughter-in-law — lived in poverty her whole life. She raised my mom and uncles then went to work as a kindergarten teacher.

Then there is my mother. She worked in a commercial truck service department. I have this vivid image of her standing inside a Freightliner engine wearing a pink top and long floral skirt showing the technicians where the problem was and how to fix it.

I realize now that when I was a little girl, I never had outside role models. I was raised by great women who worked hard, who challenged the status quo, who allowed me to dream but gave me enough sense to stay grounded. I lived with my role models and before cancer, all I wanted was to be a mother just like them.

To say that life is about choices may sound like an oversimplification. But when I was diagnosed with cancer I had two: live or die. Those are the only two options for anyone diagnosed with an acute leukemia.

I had 3 to 6 weeks to live and 72 hours to get my life in order before starting cancer treatment. There was simply no time for second opinions or figuring out how to balance cancer and life. There was no time to preserve my fertility.

The challenge before you is not an easy one. You have cancer patients who are being denied a medically necessary treatment and a fiscal note that adds slightly more to an already overstretched budget.

I’m sharing my personal story with you today to put another face — with Rep. Stokes — to this inspiring piece of legislation. But I also want to draw attention to the reality that not all — not even a majority — of cancer patients will utilize this coverage which is something that the current fiscal note does not take into account.

There are many patients like me with just too little time but there are other factors to consider.

Insurance companies already cover fertility saving treatments such as radiation shielding and ovarian transposition.

Not all patients are at risk for infertility. Thyroid cancer and melanoma, for example, can be treated or cured with surgery and treatments that have little or no impact on fertility.

Some patients may be done having children. This is especially true of many young women who are diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with a second or third child.

Then there is the grim reality that we won’t all survive a cancer diagnosis.

What Rep. Stokes is offering with HB689 is a glimmer of hope. This bill will give the few women and men, who do have time before cancer treatment, the option to preserve their fertility. This is not legislation that will make or break an insurance company and it won’t make or break employers. HB689 is good public policy. It provides maximum impact for your constituents at minimal cost to the state.

Cancer already takes so much. I respectfully ask you to please, make this one less. Allow young adults in Louisiana a chance at embracing life after cancer by embracing their own child.

Testimony as prepared for the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee hearing on May 1, 2018.