Letter to the Editor: 'Hannah’s Law' Needs Your Help

• Editor's Note: The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by Jessie Devane. If you'd like to send your letters to the editor, email plamena@patch.com.

With the help of Senator Greg Ball, New York State is a My daughter Hannah, was diagnosed with an extremely rare illness called eosinophilic esophagitis. This potentially fatal disease makes it incredibly difficult for my daughter to eat and digest real foods. Therefore, in order to keep my daughter alive, we must feed her a specialized liquid formula, which we had been doing for many years.

Four years ago, my insurance company ceased paying for this specialized formula, stating that it was a “food supplement” and was not considered a necessity. I found out that the orally administered enteral formula would cost $1,200 per month, or $14,400 a year. As I’m sure you can imagine, once the initial anger from this denial went away, I was overcome with helplessness. I knew something needed to be done, or my baby’s life would be in jeopardy.

We found Greg Ball while he was still in the Assembly, and told him our story with high hopes that somebody would find it important enough to act upon. After hearing our story, the now, Senator Greg Ball assured us that he would do everything in his power to help out my little girl. As you can imagine, we were thrilled by his on-the-spot interest in helping our family!

Now, after four long years of battling the legislature and the insurance industry, Senator Ball has finally passed “Hannah’s Law” through the senate. This bill requires insurance companies to cover the enteral formula that victims of such diseases as eosinophilic esophagitis, need to sustain normal, healthy lives. This illness is not cosmetic, it is life threatening and insurance companies need to treat it as such. My baby looks like any other seven year old girl her age, she deserves to be able to act and live life like every other little girl too.

Please, contact your local Assembly person and urge them to pass “Hannah’s Law” in the Assembly. This bill has a long way to go before it becomes law, and you can help make sure that it does. My wish is that one day, thousands of children across New York will be able to lead better lives because of this bill.

Please come meet Hannah and myself at a special fundraiser with Senator Ball on Monday, Sept. 24 at Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Anthony’s is located at 264 Main Street in White Plains, NY. Please contact me at jfdevane@yahoo.com for more information.

Thank you for your interest in Hannah’s story and I look forward to seeing you there.

Jessie Devane

Yorktown Heights