Prescription drugs, provider fee proposed

Tuesday, January 24th 2006, 5:59 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) â€“ State house Democrats are proposing a health care plan that calls for drug reimportation and a permanent mechanism for obtaining federal matching Medicaid funding for hospitals.

Democrats also are advocating regulating advertising of prescription drugs, increasing funding for senior nutrition programs and expanding a program to subsidize health care insurance costs of small businesses.

State Representative Bill Nations says the lack of universal health care coverage is hurting Oklahomans and the rest of the taxpaying public in the country. He says the United States is alone among 17 industrialized nations that don't have universal health care.

He says the result is that the high number of uninsured is driving up costs to everyone else.

In Oklahoma, an estimated 20 percent of citizens do not have health insurance.