Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that requires any health benefit plan that is offered, issued, or renewed on or after January 1, 2009 to provide coverage for clinical cancer trials.

Highlights:

- Exempts health benefit plans from having to cover the costs of an investigational drug, services not related to the patients participation in the clinical trial, research associated with the clinical trial, or any costs that would not be covered if noninvestigational treatments were provided [sec. 2 (7) (b)]. - Requires the clinical trial to be utilized for the purpose of the prevention of reoccurence, early detection or treatment of cancer for which no other available treatment is equally or more effective [sec. 3 (1)]. - Requires the clinical trial to be conducted with the approval of an institute, center, or cooperative group associated with the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or a qualified research entity that meets the standards established by the National Institutes of Health for grant eligibility [sec. 3 (3)]. - Requires the clinical trial to have been reviewed and approved by an institutional review board approved by the Office of Protection for Research Risk of the National Institutes of Health [sec. 3 (5)]. - Specifies that no third party is liable for damages associated with the clinical trial [sec. 4 (A)]. - Allows a health benefit plan to impose deductibles, coinsurance requirements or other standard cost-sharing provisions to cover the costs of the clinical trials [sec. 5 (A)]. - Establishes the effective date of this Act as November 1, 2008 (Sec. 6).

Full Bill Text