SB 1942 empowers patients and doctors
Jonathan Small | April 9, 2026
It’s no secret that government intervention and middlemen are chiefly to blame for rising health care costs.
Senate Bill 1942 is an attempt to help patients and their doctors be less restricted by middlemen—in this case, insurers—who want to dictate to patients and doctors what patients and doctors determine is an acceptable price for dental services.
The reality is that sometimes an insurance policy or plan may not cover the full cost for a service that is or isn’t covered by the plan. In this case, the free-market-based position is to allow patients and providers to agree with each other on a total price, allowing a plan to cover whatever portion of the cost it will, and have patients pay providers any difference they agree to for that service.
The more patients and medical providers are allowed to agree on prices acceptable to them, the greater chance we will have over the long term to reduce health care costs, empower patients, and ensure access to health care with less government and middlemen interference.
We encourage lawmakers to vote yes on SB 1942.
Jonathan Small
President
Jonathan Small, C.P.A., serves as President and joined the staff in December of 2010. Previously, Jonathan served as a budget analyst for the Oklahoma Office of State Finance, as a fiscal policy analyst and research analyst for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and as director of government affairs for the Oklahoma Insurance Department. Small’s work includes co-authoring “Economics 101” with Dr. Arthur Laffer and Dr. Wayne Winegarden, and his policy expertise has been referenced by The Oklahoman, the Tulsa World, National Review, the L.A. Times, The Hill, the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post. His weekly column “Free Market Friday” is published by the Journal Record and syndicated in 27 markets. A recipient of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s prestigious Private Sector Member of the Year award, Small is nationally recognized for his work to promote free markets, limited government and innovative public policy reforms. Jonathan holds a B.A. in Accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a Certified Public Accountant.