Every day, millions of Americans bear significant burdens when facing health concerns that impact their quality of life and historically require lengthy clinic visits. Unfortunately, health insurance companies are now posing even more challenges.

Patients often struggle to access the medicines and treatments they need because insurers and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) dictate the price and availability of medicines by deploying step or “fail first” policies that hinder timely care. Recent reporting from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal has shown the general public how PBMs and insurers capitalize, detailing their profitable financial tactics that push patients who need medicines to pay more and clear more hurdles than necessary.

Such practices restrict access to innovative, advanced treatments until those in need have exhausted alternative therapy options – even if it goes against doctors’ orders and jeopardizes their overall health. All too often, these policies lead to patients not following through with the insurance-dictated treatment, delaying care and becoming sicker.

Take, for example, the myriad of obstacles patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) consistently face. The condition is chronic and complex, and more than 20 percent of UC patients endure moderately to severely active levels of the disease. Despite many approved therapies at the ready for UC, healthcare providers and patients are often forced to continue seeking access to additional treatments. People with UC and their caregivers feel the impact at all stages of their lives.

Ulcerative Colitis is just one example of a chronic condition that is being targeted by insurance companies.  Many other patients and families living with other chronic and life-threatening diseases face bad tactics by health insurers every single day.

Click here to join us in urging health insurance companies to cover the medicine your doctor prescribed!