A law inspired by the treatment and recovery of former President Jimmy Carter from liver and brain cancer could - and should - have implications across the country.
The bill, passed by both houses of Georgia's legislature and now on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature, is narrowly focused but says any insurance company that offers health care plans in the state cannot force patients to first fail to respond to other treatments before trying more advanced regimens like the one that helped the former president.
Carter, in his status as the country's former chief executive, had access to the very best treatment and the most up-to-date doctors armed with the latest information in the field when he was diagnosed with four small melanoma lesions on his brain last August.
Further, he could pay for more expensive regimens if his insurance company would not.
Carter's treatment plan at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University called for the drug pembroluzimab and radiation therapy.
The drug and ones similar to it are relatively new, doctors have said, and they are still learning how they should be used. Immunotherapies like the drug given to the former president work by enhancing the ability of the immune system to locate and destroy cancer cells. Pembroluzimap, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in September 2014, works in addition to remove the immunosuppressant quality of the cancer cells that allows them to go undetected by the immune system.
Not long after beginning treatment, Carter announced the treatment appeared to be working, and in December he announced tests indicated there was no cancer in his body. Just last week, he said he would need no more treatment.
While the Georgia bill only applies to health plans that cover the treatment of advanced metastatic cancer, which typically involves stage 4 patients in which cancer has spread to other parts of the body, patients across the country with cancer and other devastating illnesses should be able to have the peace of mind to know their doctors can consider the most advanced regimens.
The patients, in turn, can elect not to have newer treatments if the drugs have not had a long history and their side effects still aren't fully known, but they at least will know they have had the benefit of the doctor's expertise on the latest treatment.
The bill, called the "Honorable Jimmy Carter Cancer Treatment Access Act," passed the state House unanimously last month and passed the state Senate 53-1 Monday.