The State Chamber of Oklahoma announced today its support to a legal challenge of House Bill 2632, which was signed into law in May 2019. Due to the pending lawsuit, an agreement was reached on Nov. 5 to halt the implementation of certain provisions of the legislation.

Fred Morgan, president and CEO of the State Chamber of Oklahoma, released the following statement:

“During this most recent legislative session, we joined a statewide coalition of Oklahoma businesses and nonprofits to oppose House Bill 2632, which will increase the prescription drug costs for consumers and employers. The law is a misguided attempt to legislate a higher profit margin for pharmacists at the expense of families that need access to affordable prescription drugs. Additionally, this poorly conceived legislation will increase the cost to employers who provide health care coverage for their employees. The enacted law directly contradicts provisions within federal law, including the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Medicare Prescription Drug Act. This latest version of government interference rewrites private contracts, limits benefits available to workers, families and seniors, and erodes safeguards designed to manage the integrity, quality and safety of pharmaceutical providers.”

“As legal experts predicted during session, this law is now being challenged in federal court. Furthermore, this is the fourth such challenge to this type of state law. Similar laws have already been overturned by the courts in at least two other states and challenged in a third.”

“The State Chamber of Oklahoma is supporting the petitioners in its suit in order to continue to defend the business community’s ability to provide affordable health care benefits for Oklahoma employers and the hard-working Oklahomans they employ.”

“On Nov. 5, an agreement was reached to halt the implementation of certain provisions of HB 2632 during the litigation. On behalf of every Oklahoman who needs access to affordable prescription drugs and every employer seeking to provide pharmaceutical benefits to their employees, we expect the law to be struck down following the established legal precedent.”