Back off health plans, Texas

By Mia McCord, Executive Director, Texans for Affordable Health Care

This following letter-to-the-editor originally appeared in the Dallas Morning News

Earlier this year, Texas lawmakers debated HB 2021, which would have prevented many employers from crafting cost-efficient prescription drug coverage for employees. The bill was pushed by independent pharmacists wanting to prevent large businesses from steering employees to the most affordable Rx drug providers, often mail-order pharmacies or box stores.

By discouraging the use of low-cost options, HB 2021 would have led to increases in the cost of employer-sponsored benefits packages and driven up copays.

A recent decision by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals also states that laws like HB 2021 are unconstitutional. In the case of PCMA vs. Mulready, the court examined a similar Oklahoma law and found that employers who fund and craft their own benefits packages are regulated by federal, not state, law.

Texas lawmakers should take note: Mandating how businesses construct their benefits packages is not only costly to consumers and counterproductive, but it’s also an effort the courts are stopping.