Quotes of the Day

“On the very day that a new governor is taking the oath of office, wanting to move Oklahoma forward into a new economic era, Washington, D.C., is throwing him a dead dog, telling him, ‘We’re not going to pay thousands and thousands of your constituents.’”

-Dave Spero, a furloughed Federal Aviation Administration technician who was among those picketing outside the Oklahoma City airport to warn travelers of the effects of the government shutdown [Source: NewsOK]

“Because Oklahoma is a state that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the adults that they’re talking about here — although they don’t usually describe them this way — they’re parents, and they’re very poor parents, the most vulnerable families in Oklahoma.”

-Center for Children and Families Executive Director Joan Alker, speaking about her group’s new estimate that up to 13,000 Oklahomans would lose health insurance under Oklahoma’s proposed Medicaid work and reporting requirements [Source: Public Radio Tulsa]

“State policy has knowingly created an underclass of people — mostly employed in low-wage jobs — who can’t afford to get sick. They don’t earn enough for ‘Obamacare’ subsidies and they don’t qualify for Medicaid, which Oklahoma essentially reserves for children, pregnant women, the aged and the disabled. Thus, more than a third of your neighbors had to make the wrong medical choice last year because they just couldn’t afford to do anything else.”

-Tulsa World Editorial Editor Wayne Green, writing about how Oklahoma’s policy of denying coverage to the poor magnifies eventual health crises and costs [Source: Tulsa World]

“You would think in the United States, with the sophistication of our healthcare system, that we would not have this issue.”

-Barbara O’Brien, director of the Office of Perinatal Quality Improvement at OUHSC, speaking about the rising number of deaths from pregnancy and childbirth-related complications in Oklahoma [Source: KTUL]

“People are having to make judgments between whether they go to jail or pay fines or acquire the very basic necessities of life.”

-James Hinds, a Tulsa lawyer who is part of a group working to reform Oklahoma’s reliance on fines and fees to fund the court system [Source: Tulsa World]

“Oklahoma has among the highest car insurance rates and highest percentages of uninsured drivers in the nation. The two are indelibly linked. The catalyst for both is the state’s low wages, which hinder Oklahomans’ ability to pay.”

–Journal Record Editorial

“As we look to this new year, and we make personal resolutions — I challenge you to make one to remain engaged and support our legislators on issues important to us. For me, I want to continue to share my voice as an educator in the state and keep an eye on bills related to education. The voice of people of Oklahoma is not about two weeks pacing in front of the Capitol with signs, but sustained engagement with our elected officials.”

-University of Oklahoma education professor Theresa Cullen [Source: Tulsa World]

‘They made commitments to us about what they were going to do to lower caseloads and that doesn’t seem to be happening. I think that’s a problem.”

-Marcia Lowry, an attorney for the plaintiffs in a class action settlement against Oklahoma’s child welfare system, speaking about the state’s lack of progress in reducing child welfare worker caseloads for the past two year [Source: The Frontier]

“Here’s the fiscal reality of Medicaid expansion: Oklahomans have been paying the taxes to support it for years now, they just haven’t been getting anything in return, because the Legislature has stubbornly refused money offered at 9-to-1 match. The idea that the money would go away once Barack Obama left the White House is now proven wrong.”

–Tulsa World Editorial Board

“The point they are trying to make is, ‘Work is good, period.’ With no qualifications. It is the same reasoning involved in going from ‘work can have beneficial health effects’ to saying slavery is good. It’s the same reasoning.”

-University of California Professor Paula Braveman, who objected to the way that her research was cited in Oklahoma’s application for a Medicaid work requirement, which exclusively targets very poor parents and caregivers [Source: State Impact Oklahoma]