Empowering patient voices through voter registration
While roughly 83% of adults in the United States will visit a health care provider in the next year, an estimated
News
2018 South Dakota Legislative Session Recap
March 20, 2018
The 2018 South Dakota Legislative Session ended on March 9 with 570 bills introduced. This was a significant increase from the 388 introduced in 2017 and 418 in 2016. The ACS CAN South Dakota team worked on many issues that will assist in the fight against cancer. Some key highlights of the 2018 Session are below:
Increased access to Biosimilars
The development of biologic drugs has provided patients and their physicians with access to improved therapeutic options. Biologic drugs are some of the most expensive drugs on the market today. However, as generics have done for small-molecule drugs, interchangeable biosimilars have the potential to increase price competition on older biologic drugs, and result in lower cost burdens for patients.
Sen. Deb Soholt and Rep. Leslie Heinemann sponsored SB 75 that would create a new pathway for biologic substitution and would enhance patient access to new and potentially less costly medications. The bill was unanimously passed out of both the Senate and House of Representatives and signed into law by Gov. Dennis Daugaard on February 8th.
Tobacco control
This year, ACS CAN worked with its partners to support legislation that would work to prevent children from smoking, help adults quit, and ensure funding would be protected to ensure funding for important tobacco prevention and control programs in our communities.
As part of these efforts, legislation was introduced to raise the state’s legal sales age for all tobacco products to 21 and increase the tobacco tax. Although both bills were unsuccessful, state legislators approved a budget that ensured funding remained level for comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs.
Looking ahead
As we wrap up another legislative session and look at the year ahead, our attention is turned to many exciting opportunities. In addition to a busy election season, the tobacco tax ballot measure has been approved by the Secretary of State and will be included on the November 2018 ballot. ACS CAN staff and volunteers will be busy during the summer months advocating for the importance of the $1.00/pack increase. Please be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates.