Lawmakers selected to dam greater well being care prices to sufferers
As we close to the tip of the legislative session, I need to thank lawmakers for standing up for Oklahoma sufferers and prioritizing households’ entry to reasonably priced and accessible well being care and prescription drug protection.
Our state dodged a bullet when the Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy rescinded an pointless and costly proposed algorithm on the house supply of medicines. If handed into legislation, these laws would have required all medicines to be shipped in temperature-controlled packages, even when not medically vital. These misguided mandates would have imposed a brand new payment of as much as $23 per bundle — a big monetary burden on prime of the already sky-high costs set by massive drug corporations.
If these guidelines had been authorised, they might have led to a lot greater prices for Oklahoma companies and the sufferers they cowl. What’s extra, these new guidelines would have been redundant with well-established delivery requirements and temperature necessities, which pharmacies observe when packaging up prescribed drugs to be delivered to a affected person’s doorstep.
Lawmakers had a selection: Put an finish to this pointless authorities overreach by standing up for hardworking Oklahomans, or permit greater prices for our state’s companies, employees and their households.
Fortunately, lawmakers noticed the menace these guidelines posed to accessible and reasonably priced well being care, significantly for our most susceptible populations — rural Oklahomans, low-income people, seniors and retirees who depend upon residence supply of medicines.
Whereas these guidelines sat on the desk of legislators for longer than comfy, our elected officers stopped them from turning into legislation, and for that we’re grateful. To our lawmakers, on behalf of all of the Oklahoma companies and households that you simply protected against greater well being care prices this yr, thanks.
However the combat isn’t over.
We’d like our legislators to stay vigilant for comparable proposals sooner or later, which might put Oklahomans’ bodily and monetary well being again on the road. We’re able to proceed preventing by your facet.
Ericka McPherson is govt director of Oklahoma Households for Inexpensive Well being Care.
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