Illinois Medicaid recipients will now be eligible for clinical trials to beat cancer.  A bill proposed in part by Senator Andy Manar and supported by the American Cancer Society was signed into law today by Governor JB Pritzker. Senate Bill 1864 is a health care package that includes covering routine costs for clinical trials as long as Medicaid would normally cover those same routine costs for a non-clinical procedure.  Senator Manar says this is an extremely important bill to be pushed through.

Senator Manar says this will open up new treatments for cancer and save lives. Senator Manar says it is encouraging to be able to have bipartisan support on these bills.

While many people don’t realize this bill has been pushed through now, Senator Manar says the people that it does affect are extremely grateful.

More than 20% of Illinoisans are covered by Medicaid, making it the second-largest type of insurance behind Medicare.