Quotes of the Day
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“Employers have never been effective in forcing down prices. The providers are very consolidated and powerful. The employers are fractured.”
-David Blumenthal, president of The Commonwealth Fund, speaking about a new report showing employer-based health care costs are continuing to rise, including in Oklahoma [Tulsa World]
“I just really want legislators to hear: ‘Thank you for the raise, but it’s really not all about teacher pay. It’s about working conditions. It’s class size, lack of support staff, lack of materials.”
-Melissa Hicks, a Tulsa Public School librarian speaking to her senator at a Tulsa event that connected parents and lawmakers [Tulsa World]
“Not only are we looking at a significant delay in implementation, but from what we know about the plan, I don’t see anything but increased administrative costs and extra burden on Medicaid enrollees and providers in the state.”
-Tiffany Milone, policy director for the Nebraska-based nonprofit OpenSky Policy Institute, speaking about their state’s decision to pursue an alternative to traditional Medicaid expansion [Oklahoma Watch]
“My hope is to show that our state retirement systems have improved dramatically over the past decade, and we are now in a position to give our retirees the COLA they deserve and have been promised.”
-Rep. Avery Frix, R-Muskogee, discussing efforts to give cost-of-living adjustments to state retirees [The Oklahoman]
“State decisions not to expand have cost the lives of 15,600 people.”
-Danielle Wells, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities spokesperson [KOSU]
“A lot of the safety nets that we need in place in conjunction with core funding to our social services and punitive policies around criminal justice all kind of go together in this bucket that creates an environment that is not as conducive for child and family well-being as we would like.”
-Julie Miller-Cribbs, director of OU-Tulsa’s Anne & Henry Zarrow School of Social Work [Tulsa World]
“Instead of incarcerating the individual, we want to get down to the root cause and provide the proper treatment, which will also increase the safety in our communities and reduce the prison population.”
-Theodis Manning Sr., a Midwest City pastor who teaches inside the Department of Corrections [The Oklahoman]
“There may indeed be an ‘Oklahoma plan’ for Medicaid worth considering, but hopefully the governor won’t propose an ill-advised block grant scheme that will fail legal muster and, without Congressional approval, will almost surely never be implemented.”
-Former Oklahoma House Speaker Steve Lewis, writing about a consideration to use a Medicaid block grant program. [OK Policy]
“Many folks who have been involved in the system at some point hope that their inability to pay doesn’t land them back in prison, but also assume that they will die still owing fines and fees.”
-Nicole McAfee, director of policy and advocacy for the Oklahoma ACLU. [The Oklahoman]
“I’m hoping that I’ve paved the way for the men and women coming behind me to know that they can get their pardon, that just because they wear the label of felon doesn’t mean that it has to stop them from accomplishing anything.”
-Rhonda Bear, a criminal justice reform advocate who was pardoned by Gov. Stitt on Thursday [Public Radio Tulsa]