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In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
Today you should know that plans to build an Affordable Care Act-compliant health insurance exchange for Oklahoma are moving ahead rapidly and expected to start on time, despite the state’s refusal to participate and Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s efforts to neuter its operations. The Oklahoma House passed a resolution to disallow any new funding for the endangered Insure Oklahoma program, but it did so after the state Senate had adjoined for the year, making the action essentially meaningless. An at-home nursing care program is helping Oklahoma’s Medicaid agency to save money on hospital stays while improving health outcomes.
The House limped to adjournment last Friday seven hours after the Senate, with only 63 out of 101 House members still in the Chamber. The Oklahoma editorial board writes that despite the favorable national attention being received by House Speaker TW Shannon, his actual policy record in Oklahoma doesn’t measure up. Julie Delcour writes that spending on private prisons is crowding out other state needs. The Teamsters union said it has collected signatures from a majority of American Airlines maintenance workers to take take over from the Transport Workers Union.
The New York Times told the story of a Bethany police officer who chased behind the tornado that devastated Moore to pull survivors from the rubble. Governor Fallin rejected a plan to distribute debit cards worth $1,200 funded with federal TANF money to tornado-stricken families. President Obama visited the devastated area on Sunday and promised that the country would not turn its back on the residents’ recovery.
The Number of the Day is the number of private business start-ups in Oklahoma since 1998 emerging from federally funded bioscience research at the University of Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows how America is the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation or holidays, and it’s mostly poorer workers who are denied vacations.
In The News
Federal health-care exchange expected to start on time in Oklahoma
Plans to build an Affordable Care Act-compliant health insurance exchange for Oklahoma are moving ahead rapidly, despite the state’s refusal to participate and Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s efforts to neuter its operations. Earlier this year, state officials said they had hardly heard from federal officials putting together the exchange for the state. “It has changed pretty dramatically,” said Julie Cox-Kain, chief operating officer for the Oklahoma State Department of Health. “Clearly, (federal officials are) planning to have an exchange and have it operational.” An exchange is essentially a government-run electronic supermarket for health insurance. Under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, every state will have an exchange that would give consumers an opportunity to compare coverage options and costs for insurance that complies with minimum federal standards.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
House passes measure to ‘quarantine’ Insure Oklahoma after Senate adjourns
The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a final-day concurrent resolution to “quarantine” the funding for the endangered Insure Oklahoma program, but it did so after the state Senate had adjoined for the year, making the action essentially meaningless. Earlier this week, Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon refused to allow a proposed law to extend the program after its Dec. 31 end, saying, “I don’t believe providing health insurance is a proper or efficient function of government.” That provoked Gov. Mary Fallin to say it became Shannon’s responsibility to deal with the 9,000 people who would lose their health care coverage as a result.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma program has saved money and improved health outcomes
Katryna Lyles used to spend a lot of time in hospitals. Now, not so much. In fact, she can’t remember the last time she spent the night in a hospital bed, and Oklahoma taxpayers should be relieved. Lyles is an Oklahoma Medicaid client and every time she went into the hospital, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority – funded with state and federal money – was picking up the bill. Lyles is one of the success stories of the authority’s Health Management Program, an effort to bring nurses into the homes of some of the potentially most expensive Medicaid clients in the state and help them manage their health challenges.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma House has anticlimactic early end to session
The Oklahoma House of Representatives wound down the 2013 legislative session Friday night, not so much adjourning as wandering away. With the Senate long gone and the big issues settled, the 101-member House had dwindled to 63 hardy souls by the time the last vote was taken at 7:34 p.m. on a bill concerning candidate declaration forms. It was the oddest, most anticlimactic ending to a session in memory. The usual intrigue and breathless sensation of a train running full tilt toward an open ravine were missing, but the pent-up tension, animosity and frustration of the past four months were not.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
NewsOK: Oklahoma House speaker’s potential is real, but remains a work in progress
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus announced recently that Oklahoma House Speaker T.W. Shannon will be featured at RNC events across the country. The honor was likely bestowed based on Shannon’s personal appeal and his potential — not on his actual record. Shannon, R-Lawton, is clearly likable and charismatic. He’s a gifted public speaker. But his biggest appeal to national GOP leaders is undoubtedly his heritage. Shannon is a black Republican and a member of the Chickasaw Nation. That’s a rare combination. Shannon’s record so far hasn’t drawn national attention.
Public or private: The future of Oklahoma incarceration
The month of May so far isn’t turning out to be a public-relations bonanza for private prisons. Early in the month, to mark its 30th anniversary, the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America was heading into a weeklong stretch of celebrations. And then party crashers showed up – an assortment of civil rights leaders, people from the faith community, former inmates and criminal justice reform groups, which staged protests from Washington, D.C., to Tucson. Protestors cited ethical differences with corporations that are built on incarcerating people; there is no incentive to reduce an inmate population.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
To rescue survivors, he pursued the storm
Phillip Wise on Monday chased one of the most ferocious tornadoes to touch down in Oklahoma in years. Through his windshield from a half-mile out, the Category 5 twister was not so much a funnel but a shapeless, swirling wall of mud, pieces of homes, and airborne cars and horses. He is not a thrill-seeking storm tracker, and he works for neither the National Weather Service nor the Weather Channel. He is a police officer, for 27 years and counting. Lieutenant Wise, 52, pursued the tornado that flattened parts of this Oklahoma City suburb on Monday as if it were a perpetrator, trailing it in his patrol car because he knew there would be mass injuries and people in need in its wake.
Read more from the New York Times.
Plan to give $1,200 debit cards to tornado victims rejected
Fallin administration officials rejected a plan to distribute debit cards worth $1,200 – funded with federal money – to tornado-stricken families early this week after determining that more traditional efforts were meeting the affected area’s needs. “The governor has conveyed to all her agency heads, all her Cabinet directors, her staff, all of state government from the top down that this is a crisis of the most serious nature, and our state government needs to respond in the most compassionate and helpful way that it can,” said Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz. But when Oklahoma Department of Human Services Director Ed Lake suggested Monday that the state use up to $10 million in unspent federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families money for emergency relief payments, the idea was rejected. Lake said he had used a similar response to natural disasters in Tennessee when he was the deputy commissioner of human services there and that the effort had worked well.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Obama visits tornado-devastated city of Moore
After days of grieving and cleanup along Eagle Drive, a battered community took a moment to rest Sunday and welcome President Obama, who after walking several blocks of one devastated neighborhood promised that the country would not turn its back on the residents’ recovery. Speaking at what was until last week the brick campus of Plaza Towers Elementary School, where seven children were killed by the slam of a fearsome tornado, Obama offered equal measures of confidence and solace in the bewildering aftermath. “This is a strong community with a strong character,” Obama said from the shadow of the school’s ruined classrooms, a 20-foot-high pile of debris behind him. “There is no doubt they will bounce back, but they need help.”
Read more from the Washington Post.
Teamsters union says American Airlines workers have signed enough cards to force vote
The Teamsters union plans to file documents with the National Mediation Board on Tuesday in a bid to represent mechanics and related workers at American Airlines. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters told the Tulsa World it has collected signatures from more than half of American Airlines’ mechanics and related workers and will try to force out the Transport Workers Union with a vote this summer. American Airlines employs nearly 11,000 maintenance workers, nearly half of them at the Tulsa Maintenance & Engineering Center at Tulsa International Airport. If the National Mediation Board deems the signatures valid, there would be a vote on union representation among American Airlines maintenance workers.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Quote of the Day
State legislators fail to understand that the lack of competitive pay continues to erode the ability to hire and retain qualified workers. Department of Human Services employees have gone seven years without a raise, yet another study is needed to see if a raise is warranted? Today’s workload is greater than at any time in the past. Caseloads for child protective services are unmanageable and increasing as more workers leave. More and more children are placed on a backlog status, forcing workers to pick what fire to put out while leaving others exposed to possible danger.
Number of the Day
36
The number of private business start-ups in Oklahoma since 1998 emerging from federally funded bioscience research at the University of Oklahoma.
Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
America is the only rich country that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation or holidays
Happy Memorial Day! If your employer is giving you the day off, with pay, pat yourself on the back. You’re one of the lucky ones! As this graph from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows, the United States is the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee its workers either paid vacation or holidays. Of course, in practice, richer workers are able to negotiate for both paid vacation and paid holidays. It’s poorer workers who can’t take any time off. This is one more way in which the poor often end up working much harder than the rich.
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