Take Action: Contact Your Legislators

Dear [Lawmaker],

I am a constituent and voter writing about HB 4457 and its provision that would force certain pharmacies to close or be sold off.

I understand that some lawmakers are concerned about pharmacy benefit managers owning pharmacies. That concern may be worth discussing. But HB 4457 goes after the wrong target and would hurt patients like me and people in my community.

This legislation would force the closure of multiple types of pharmacies – including retail, mail-order and specialty pharmacies. Access is already challenging enough in rural areas. For many Oklahomans – especially seniors, people with disabilities, patients with chronic conditions, and rural families – our existing pharmacies are a lifeline. Closing them doesn’t lower drug prices. It just makes medicines harder and more expensive to get.

With some of our rural hospitals already struggling, Oklahoma should not be risking closing or reducing access to pharmacies, as well. This approach would increase real costs for patients by adding travel time, transportation costs, missed doses, and delays in care – while drug manufacturers continue charging whatever they want for insulin, cancer drugs, and specialty medications.

Pharmacies, hospitals, insurers, doctors and patients are all downstream from pharmaceutical manufacturers. They do not set drug prices. Drugmakers do. If we want to lower costs, we need to address the root of the problem: monopolistic drug pricing.

I urge you to:

•	Oppose HB 4457, and

•	Support a Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) so Oklahoma can review and rein in excessive drug price increases before they harm patients, small businesses, and state budgets.

Punishing pharmacies and cutting off access is not a commonsense solution. Lowering drug prices is.

Thank you for listening and for representing Oklahomans like me.

Sincerely,
______

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