New bill protects people’s life insurance amid opioid crisis

PROVIDENCE (AP) 2019--PROVIDENCE (AP) -- The Rhode Island Senate has passed a bill to prohibit life insurance companies from denying or limiting policies for people with a prescription for an opioid overdose-reversal medication.

Democratic Senate President Dominick Ruggerio sponsored the measure, which passed his chamber on Thursday and now advances to the House.

Ruggerio says it removes a barrier to accessing the life-saving medication. Senate spokesman Greg Paré says the issue came to Ruggerio's attention because a nurse who got a naloxone prescription was denied life insurance in Rhode Island.

The bill says no life insurance company in Rhode Island can deny a policy application solely on the basis that the applicant has a prescription to carry or possess naloxone.

Rhode Island has an "open prescription" for naloxone, meaning anyone can obtain it at a pharmacy.

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