Tag: Health Department

Infant Mortality: It’s everyone’s responsibility

The State Department of Health recently convened a leadership summit to address a public health problem that is as tragic as it is entrenched in Oklahoma: infant mortality.  The summit is part of a statewide initiative to raise awareness about… Read more [More...]

Out of the Mouths of Babes: Legislature moves to cut child nutrition benefits

The Oklahoma legislature is poised to deal a major blow to non-profits and faith-based organizations who help administer the WIC program.  The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program is a federally-funded, state-administered nutrition service for low-income women, infants and children… Read more [More...]

What's at stake: Budget cuts are eroding the public health infrastructure

By now, it is well known that the state budget has been under severe duress over the past two years. Overall, as we show in the latest version of our Budget Trends and Highlights fact sheet, this year’s state appropriations… Read more [More...]

What's at stake: Public health budget cuts

While discussing the state of public health in Oklahoma with a House health appropriations subcommittee, Health Commissioner Terry Cline warned that “Oklahoma is about to become the public health joke of the country.” With Oklahoma standing at 49th in overall… Read more [More...]

Budget Cuts: The pain spreads broader and deeper

Last month, we surveyed some of the budget cuts that state agencies were being forced to implement as result of the state’s revenue shortfalls. Since then, the grim news continues to spread deeper into core programs, affecting major services like… Read more [More...]

Hurting all over: A survey of some recent state and local budget cuts

As revenues have come in significantly below estimates this year, funding to state agencies was cut 5 percent a month from August to November and 10 percent each month since (see our updated fact sheet). OK Policy’s intern Matt Gardner… Read more [More...]

The sky is slowly descending!

“The sky is falling!” clearly would make a more compelling headline, but in the case of state agencies trying to deal with the  continuing pressures of rising costs, increasing responsibilities, and flat funding, the reality is less dramatic but no… Read more [More...]