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Imagine you are ill, but your insurance company won’t pay for the medicine your doctor says you need. It happens more often than you would think, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, one lawmakers want to put patients first.

Pamela Langford was infected with the hepatitis C virus. Her doctor prescribed a new drug cocktail that included a pill and an injection. Her insurance company said no…it would only pay for the injection.

Pamela Langford was infected with the hepatitis C virus. Her doctor prescribed a new drug cocktail that included a pill and an injection. But her insurance company said no…it was only willing to pay for the injection.

”This is a case of the insurance company overriding the doctor?” we asked.

“Yes” says Langford.

Legislation known as the Right Medicine, Right time Act was filed last year and made it through two Senate Committees. It’s going to be refiled this year. Sen. Don Gaetz says an insurer that wants to override a doctor’s orders would have to prove it was the right medical decision.

“We have insurance companies that are trying to practice medicine that are trumping what physicians are prescribing or determining for their own patients, but don’t have to respond to any clinical burden of proof” says Gaetz.

Patients who don;t get what the doctor orders often end up in emergency rooms, so companies don’t save anything by paying less for medications.

Even supporters of this Right Medicine, Right Time legislation acknowledge that in four out of five cases, the insurance company is right.

Pamela Langford was one of those cases where the insurers medicine didn’t work.

It put her in pain for months as she appealed.

“So you wasted six months of your life in some ways?” we asked.

”It was a little more than that” answered Langford.

Supporters says that in states where “Right Medicine, right time” legislation has been approved, there was no increase in insurance rates.

At least five states have approved similar legislation. It failed in three others last year, including here in Florida. The legislation is a top priority of doctors but opposed by insurance companies.