Gov. M. Jodi Rell has signed legislation that will require health insurers to cover wound-care supplies for treatment of epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare genetic skin disease that causes blisters to develop easily from the slightest pressure.
The bill takes effect Jan. 1, 2010.
About 50 people in Connecticut have some form of the incurable disease in which blisters are treated as burns. In its most severe forms, EB can affect 80 to 90 percent of the body, and blisters may form inside the body too.
Some families pay as much as $5,000 a month for wound care supplies, which include ointments and bandages, according to Laura J. Morris of Wethersfield, founder of a support foundation for EB and mother of a daughter with the disease.
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