“They will go [to emergency rooms] or to a federally qualified health care center. The problem is a lack of money – it’s not there. I don’t have an answer.”

– State Rep. Doug Cox (R-Grove), discussing the effects of proposed reductions to the state Medicaid budget, including provider reimbursement cuts on patients. Some providers have said that the cuts could force them to close clinics, leaving many Medicaid patients with access only to costly emergency rooms and underfunded federally qualified health centers. (Source)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carly Putnam joined OK Policy in 2013. As Policy Director, she supervises policy research and strategy. She previously worked as an OK Policy intern, and she was OK Policy's health care policy analyst through July 2020. She graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2013. As a student, she was a participant in the National Education for Women (N.E.W.) Leadership Institute and interned with Planned Parenthood. Carly is a graduate of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits Nonprofit Management Certification; the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council’s Partners in Policymaking; The Mine, a social entrepreneurship fellowship in Tulsa; and Leadership Tulsa Class 62. She currently serves on the boards of Restore Hope Ministries and The Arc of Oklahoma. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and doing battle with her hundred year-old house.

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