As we near the end of the legislative session, I want to thank lawmakers for standing up for Oklahoma patients and prioritizing families’ access to affordable and accessible health care and prescription drug coverage.
Our state dodged a bullet when the Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy rescinded an unnecessary and expensive proposed set of rules on the home delivery of medications. If passed into law, these regulations would have required all medicines to be shipped in temperature-controlled packages, even when not medically necessary. These misguided mandates would have imposed a new fee of up to $23 per package — a significant financial burden on top of the already sky-high prices set by big drug companies.
If those rules had been approved, they would have led to much higher costs for Oklahoma businesses and the patients they cover. What’s more, these new rules would have been redundant with well-established shipping standards and temperature requirements, which pharmacies follow when packaging up prescription drugs to be delivered to a patient’s doorstep.
Lawmakers had a choice: Put an end to this unnecessary government overreach by standing up for hardworking Oklahomans, or allow higher costs for our state’s businesses, workers and their families.
Thankfully, lawmakers saw the threat these rules posed to accessible and affordable health care, particularly for our most vulnerable populations — rural Oklahomans, low-income individuals, seniors and retirees who depend on home delivery of medications.
While these rules sat on the desk of legislators for longer than comfortable, our elected officials stopped them from becoming law, and for that we are grateful. To our lawmakers, on behalf of all the Oklahoma businesses and families that you protected from higher health care costs this year, thank you.
But the fight isn’t over.
We need our legislators to remain vigilant for similar proposals in the future, which could put Oklahomans’ physical and financial health back on the line. We’re ready to continue fighting by your side.
Ericka McPherson
Guest columnist
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