TOUCHED BY LYME: New Hampshire Lyme insurance bill heads to governor

Wendy Thomas and five of her six adult children have all been diagnosed with Lyme disease and co-infections. So, she knows a thing or two about what families go through to obtain proper treatment for tick-borne illness. And about how difficult it can be to get insurance companies to pay for it.

Wendy Thomas is also a New Hampshire state lawmaker. She has authored a Lyme insurance coverage bill that has now passed both houses of the legislature.

She explained it to me like this in an email:

The idea for this bill originated when I asked local docs who treat Lyme disease what kinds of changes to laws would help them. In New Hampshire, because a previous rep was sick with Lyme disease, we are allowed to prescribe antibiotics for long-term (and it’s covered by insurance). However, insurance would only cover 18 rounds of IV antibiotic therapy even if a doc thinks more is needed. This bill changes that and allows the doc to prescribe as she feels necessary and the insurance will now cover it. 

Click here to read the text of the bill.

The measure now heads to the desk of Governor Chris Sununu. Will he sign it into law? That remains to be seen. Stay tuned.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, LymeDisease.org’s Vice-president and Director of Communications. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.