ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — 16-year-old Devin Saylor has 31 anaphylactic allergies. He came to the state Capitol to advocate for a bill that would provide greater access to epinephrine.
“Epinephrine auto-injectors are the only treatment for anaphylaxis that we currently have,” Saylor said.
Saylor wants to use epinephrine where defibrillators are located and make sure all first responders carry epinephrine. His state senator, Republican Peter Oberacker, has a background in emergency medicine.
“We have the tools to give first responders, the people on the ground who deal with these types of issues, so why wouldn't we do it? So I'm a big proponent of that,” Oberacker said. Told.
A pack of two EpiPens can cost as much as $700, Sailer said.
“It's only $700, it's misleading to say it's only $700. You're not just buying a pack,” Sailer explained. “You need a pack for school, a pack for home, and a pack for grandma's house. You might need a backup pack. And here's the important part – they expire every year.”
To help low-income people, he wants to put price caps on life-saving treatments.
“One of the bills we're asking for is a price cap on epinephrine for private high-deductible insurance that would cap the annual cost of an EpiPen at $100. I think that's a perfectly reasonable question.”
This bill is currently in committee.
“I think this is something we should really consider,” Oberacker said. “When it came to diabetics and insulin, we were talking about that, right? These are things that are not being abused. There are things that are really of great value to quality of life. Again, , to make things more accessible and save lives, why wouldn’t we do that?”
