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.

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.

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.

On September 22, 2008, the Oklahoma Health Care Reform Task Force heard a presentation from Kathleen Stoll, Deputy Executive Director of Families USA, a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. that brings the voice of consumers to federal and state health care policy issues.

Stoll's presentation offered a detailed and insightful overview of current initiatives to expand coverage in Oklahoma and made a series of recommendations for building on the state's current health care system to provide coverage to at lest some of the 661,000 Oklahomans who are currently uncovered.

This issue brief was produced for the Public Policy Department of the Community Action Project of Tulsa County under the direction of David Blatt, then Director of Policy at CAP. 

Expanding access to health insurance for Oklahoma's children would have significant, far reaching impacts that benefit all Oklahomans. This issue brief discusses the benefits of expanding coverage.

This issue brief was produced for the Public Policy Department of the Community Action Project of Tulsa County under the direction of David Blatt, then Director of Policy at CAP. 

Medicaid serves as America's main safety net health insurer, providing health care for millions of Americans who lack affordable access to employer-sponsored insurance, such as very low-income seniors, adults, children and people with disabilities. This paper is an effort to dispel some common Medicaid myths to inform the ongoing discussions about Medicaid in Oklahoma.

This issue brief was produced for the Public Policy Department of the Community Action Project of Tulsa County under the direction of David Blatt, then Director of Policy at CAP.