HELENA -- Billings doctor James Burke was treating a 50-year-old man with incurable skin cancer.

A clinical trial for a new therapy came along, Burke said. While it may not have cured the man, it was better than nothing. The treatment, Burke said, was "absolutely free."

The patient, however, never enrolled. His insurance company refused to pay for any treatment if the man participated in the trial.

"What we're seeing right now is patients who will receive treatment for free being denied access (to clinical trials) by their insurance company," said Burke, director of cancer research for the Billings Clinic.

Burke and fellow doctor, Tom Purcell, came to Helena Tuesday to push for a bill, sponsored by Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, that would require insurance companies to pay for routine care while a patient is enrolled in a clinical trial. Some 20 other states have similar laws, Burke said.

Right now, said Purcell, director of the Cancer Center at the Billings Clinic, some insurance companies may refuse to cover routine medical care for patients enrolled in trials, in effect, using the trial as an excuse for not covering care the company would ordinarily pay for.

Purcell spoke at a cancer awareness press conference Tuesday.

But Purcell and Burke said that clinical trials, in addition to expanding medical knowledge and providing hope, generally wouldn't cost insurance companies any more money than if patients weren't enrolled in them -- and in some cases actually save the companies money.

Medicare already pays for routine care during clinical trials, Purcell said.

The bill, along with another by Sen. Carolyn Squires, D-Missoula, are part of a package the American Cancer Society and the Montana Cancer Control Coalition are pushing in the 2007 Legislature.

Squires' bill would make health insurance companies tell either people or businesses what cancer screenings the companies cover before businesses or companies agree to buy insurance.

Squires said she envisions her bill requiring the insurance companies to provide a pamphlet that could then be shared with employees or consumers directly.

"This is not a new medical mandate," Squires said.

The cancer groups passed out bouquets of five daffodils to Montana's 150 lawmakers Tuesday, marking the five Montanans who die of cancer every day, said Sue Warren, with the Montana Cancer Control Coalition.

Lois Fitzpatrick, also with the Coalition, was diagnosed with breast cancer 12 years ago. Although she didn't participate in a clinical trial herself, she said at Tuesday's press conference that she knew that the drugs that helped her beat cancer were first tested on others in clinical trials.

If nothing else, Fitzpatrick said, clinical trials give cancer patients hope and the idea that their experiences will help others.

"Hope is so important to us as survivors," she said.

Kaufmann said Billings Republican Rep. Ken Peterson has already agreed to carry her bill if it advances to the House.

"This certainly isn't a partisan issue," she said. "Cancer strikes us all."

Both bills are in the very early stages at the 2007 Legislature.