CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There is new hope for North Carolinians who have been fighting insurance companies for years to get the medicine they need.
New legislation outlaws what’s called step therapy, which means doctors now have more control, not the insurance companies.
Doctors have been fighting for decades to make these changes, so this is a big win over big insurance companies who were putting cost before patient care.
Taylor Stading remembers how much pain her son was in just a few years ago.
“He had horrible aches and pains all over his body," Stading said.
Colton Stading was just five when a doctor diagnosed him with debilitating arthritis and told his parents exactly the medicine that would help.
"He said this is what I would prescribe and then came the, 'but you have to pay out of pocket because of step therapy,'” Stading said.
Step therapy is when insurance companies require patients to try different steps, sometimes multiple drugs, before agreeing to pay for the drug the doctor actually prescribes.
“Making someone wait to take a drug that the doctor prescribes to you, the only word I can ever go back to is inhumane," Stading said
Colton spent five months trying three drugs before the family’s insurance company agreed to pay for the one that the doctor knew would help him (and did.)
Doctor Gaurang Palikh has been fighting this issue for decades on the state and federal level.
“This is not based on science on their part, it's purely based on numbers how much drug costs," Palikh said. "What kind of deal they cut with pharmaceutical companies. It’s extremely frustrating it's literally a matter of life and death in some cases.”
But now that’s changing, because last week, Governor Roy Cooper signed legislation limiting step therapy. Colton’s mom got emotional realizing how big a win this is.
"I don’t even have a word for it. I just feel heard. I felt like it was a win for everyone," Stading said.