“Are we going to kick 111,000 people off healthcare or are we going to be brave, because I think that’s about all this amounts to. Are we going to be brave enough to stand up for the least among us or are we going to give in to the people that control this building? What in the world are we doing?”

– Rep. James Lockhart (D-Heavener), speaking on the House floor against HB 2665, which would remove Medicaid eligibility for the very low-income parents of dependent children in an attempt to generate savings in the state budget. The bill passed the House 65-34 (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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