SPRINGFIELD – Insurers would be required to cover medically necessary epinephrine injectors for minors under a proposal by State Senator Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield) that passed the Senate recently.

“With steady increases in food allergies and other serious allergic conditions, we should be doing everything we can to expand access to lifesaving drugs and medicines,” Morrison said. “No child with a serious allergy should be without an epinephrine injector because they cannot afford one.”

Epinephrine injectors – commonly known by the specific brand name EpiPen – deliver the life-saving drug epinephrine to individuals experiencing a severe allergic reaction. Epinephrine works by narrowing blood vessels and opening lung airways, reversing the symptoms of an allergic reaction that, if left untreated, can cause death.

Morrison’s proposal, contained in House Bill 3435, requires certain private insurance policies to cover medically necessary epinephrine injectors for those under 18 years of age.

“While this proposal is a needed step in the right direction, our federal government should be doing much more to alleviate high prescription costs and price gouging by pharmaceutical companies,” Morrison said.

House Bill 3435 passed without opposition on May 17 and will now head to the governor’s office for his approval.