Gov. Haslam vetoes cancer treatment bill
Gov. Bill Haslam vetoed a bill Thursday related to an alternative cancer treatment.
The bill, which was approved in the House with an 82-13 vote and a 29-1 vote in the Senate, would have required insurance coverage of proton therapy for state employees.
Proton therapy is a form of targeted radiation that is not covered by all insurers in Tennessee. It is used for cancers of the brain, lung, breast and neck.
The legislation would have benefited a Franklin-based company that performs the therapy.
In a statement, Haslam said the legislation “circumvents” an established process for determining employee insurance coverage.
“The state plan currently covers many forms of radiation treatment, and the provider advocating this bill rejected a medically appropriate plan for expanded coverage to instead pursue a political mandate,” he said.
“The state is committed to high-quality care that is medically appropriate and fiscally responsible for patients and taxpayers, but this mandate could put patients at risk and expose them to excessive charges from out-of-network providers.”
After the governor’s veto, Sen. Mark Green, R-Clarksville and Rep. Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville, who sponsored the bill, called for the legislature to reconvene for a special session to override Haslam’s action.
“Unfortunately, the governor has chosen to side with the insurance companies and their vendors — ignoring what physicians and the patient have decided is best,” Green said in a statement joint statement with Ramsey.
Ramsey said he was “shocked and deeply disappointed” about the veto.
“It is established medical fact that proton therapy saves tissue, and thus lowers radiation side effects,” he said.
In their own joint statement, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Beth Harwell said calling a special session would be premature.
McNally and Harwell said because the legislature’s final bills are still awaiting action it would be more prudent to wait for the governor to act on all outstanding legislation.
“Only then can we reasonably assess the need for a special session,” the speakers said.
Beyond the lawmakers, proponents of the bill, including Don Denton, president of the Tennessee Cancer Patient Coalition, blasted the governor’s action.
“That is so wrong on so many levels,” said Denton, who successfully beat prostate cancer through proton therapy. “It sounds like the insurance lobby has been (in) his ear.”
Tom Welch, CEO of Provision Health Services and president of the company’s proton therapy center, said the bill would have provided coverage for the treatment under certain conditions at no cost to the state, patients or insurance companies.
“Vetoing this bill took power from the patient and patient’s physician and handed it right to the insurance companies,” Welch said.
Welch said the argument that providers like Provision could charge patients more for proton therapy under the bill is incorrect.
“The bill explicitly says that the amounts chargeable to the patient are no more than they would be if the patient got conventional radiation therapy. That’s an obvious case of misinformation,” he said.
Haslam’s veto of the bill is just his fifth since he entered office in 2010.
His last veto came in 2016, when the legislature approved a measure to make the Bible the official book of Tennessee. The House failed to override Haslam’s veto.
To overrule Haslam’s action, the legislature would need to reconvene and a simple majority would need to vote in favor of overriding the veto.
Elaina Sauber contributed to this report.