Mary Copeland

I am a migraine patient and have been for most of my life. I am also a parent and have had to support my daughter who has had chronic migraines for nearly half of her life. By the time she was 18, she had between 25 to daily migraines each month, and this continued for the next decade despite available treatments which primarily reduced the intensity (not frequency) of her migraines. In 2018, a new class of migraine medications(CRGP inhibitors) was approved, which decreased her migraines from 25-daily to 5-10 each month. This was life-changing in the best possible way, as she gained more migraine-free time and energy to spend on hobbies, people in her life, social events, and her career. However, after 3 years, her health insurance stopped covering her medication. Then she had a life-threatening allergic reaction to her insurance's preferred alternative that involved multiple anaphylactic episodes, epi-pens, and a hospitalization. She is still dealing with the consequences of that health insurer's decision to this day, 4 years later. Not only has she not been able to return to her pre-severe reaction migraine treatment plan (she currently get about 15 migraines each month), but she also is managing recurrent severe symptoms. This triggered a severe allergy flare/immune system dysfunction that she has been dealing with ever since and currently takes six allergy medications to manage it. If the Safe Step Act had been law in 2022, it would've prevented her life-threatening drug reaction through exceptions 5 - patient is stable on current medication. Additionally, the requirement for a resolution within 72 hours would have prevented a gap in her migraine treatment while pursuing insurance coverage.