DENVER-
The House gave initial approval Tuesday to a bill that would require health insurers to pay for cervical cancer vaccinations.
The measure now faces a third reading before being sent to the Senate.
Dr. Ned Calonge, director of the state Public Health and Environment Department, told lawmakers a $300 vaccination made by Merck & Co. is cost-effective and could prevent many of the 40 deaths a year in Colorado from cervical cancer.
Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, said he sponsored the bill (House Bill 1301) after his eldest daughter, a medical student, told him that young women she was treating were suffering from cervical cancer.
“This bill is not a mandate that children have to get the immunization. This bill simply sets up the availability of the vaccine,” Buescher told lawmakers.
A separate measure that would have promoted the vaccination of young girls entering the sixth grade was rejected earlier in the session.
