This fact sheet and presentation were given to a town hall meeting in Oklahoma City on February 16th.  The meeting featured several public health experts who spoke about urgent public health epidemics in Oklahoma, including our director David Blatt and,

Medicaid, known as SoonerCare in Oklahoma, is the primary health care safety net program in the state, without which thousands of families would forgo basic health services for their children, lack necessary medical care for their disables loved ones, and be left to shoulder alone the unsustainable burden of the long-term care of their parents and grandparents.

Click here for a copy of the presentation given at a public lecture at the state Capitol on various federal policy initiatives assocated with the new health care law, including state insurance exchange.

This presentation was delivered by OK Policy before the Joint Committee on the Federal Health Care Law on October 25, 2011. 

An OK Policy issue brief looks at the expected impact of the new federal health care law, the Affordable Care Act, on the state budget. Its main findings:

• Most studies of the impact of the Affordable Care Act have concluded that increases to state Medicaid budgets will be modest.
• Some studies have concluded that overall state spending will decrease as a result of the new law.
• Experts at the Urban Institute and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority project that Oklahoma Medicaid costs will increase between $212 and $789 million in the coming years.
• Estimates by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and Cato Institute that the Affordable Care Act will impose additional state costs of $11 billion by 2023 are way out of line with other estimates and are based on mistaken assumptions and methodologies.

Tricia Brooks, Senior Fellow with the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, gave this presentation in Tulsa on June 18, 2010 as part of a forum titled, "Health Care Reform 2010: Transitioning Health Care for Oklahoma's Children and Families." You can  download the presentation as a PDF file or view it online by clicking through below. For more information on health care reform from CCF, click here.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that 641,000 Oklahoman under the age of 65 were without health insurance coverage in 2006-07, which is more than one out of every five non-elderly Oklahomans. This fact sheet from OK Policy looks at trends in health insurance coverage in Oklahoma between 1999-2000 and 2006-2007, looking especially at sources of coverage and differences in cverage patterns between children and adults.

The availability and cost of health insurance rank among the most worrisome issues facing OKlahoma families and among the most pressing challenges confronting Oklahoma policymakers. This fall, the Oklahoma Health Care Task Force has been meeting to examine the crisis of the uninsured in Oklahoma and develop an approach to expand coverage. OK Policy participated as a member of the task force advisory committee and submitted recommendations for expanding access to affordable health insurance.

Two bills under consideration by the 2009 Legislature would allow health insurance companies to offer insurance policies to individuals under the age of 40 that do not cover health services that must otherwise be provided under state law. These mandated benefits primarily cover services for women, children and persons with chronic and serious illnesses, such as diabetes and cancer. OK Policy has expressed concern that these proposals risk leaving people without coverage for vital health services and could raise insurance costs for the most vulnerable segments of the population.