Tag: SoonerCare

Graph of the Day: Off Medicaid and ‘back to work’?

Incoming House Speaker T.W. Shannon recently suggested that SoonerCare/Medicaid enrollees in Oklahoma should get “off of Medicaid and back to work.”  The idea that the Medicaid program is providing health care to adults who are choosing not to work is… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Dr. John Schumann): 'Help Wanted' for Medicaid expansion

John Henning Schumann is a writer and doctor in Tulsa. He runs the Internal Medicine residency at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine. He created the blog GlassHospital.com and is on Twitter @GlassHospital. Despite its complexities and its… Read more [More...]

Why total spending has gone up as budgets are cut

OK Policy has spent a lot of time focusing on the real and continuing damage caused by repeated state budget cuts over the past three years, as well as the fact that state tax collections are at historic lows. Meanwhile,… Read more [More...]

Gov. Martin O'Malley: The business case for health reform

These comments were excerpted from a speech by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to a plenary session of an annual healthcare conference hosted by FamiliesUSA. Our country is now poised through the Affordable Care Act to help millions of American families… Read more [More...]

Medicaid 101: The SoonerCare Safety Net

Our health care system is experiencing an unprecedented period of upheaval. Decades of rising costs, an ever-increasing share of citizens without insurance, and an aging baby boom generation are putting immense pressure on payers, providers, and patients alike.  A new… Read more [More...]

At a Crossroads: Which path for Oklahoma's troubled health?

Is it the role of government to put policy in place to impact the overall health of our citizens?  As the Oklahoma legislature’s interim study committee prepares its final report on the state’s obligations under the new federal health care… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Julie Miller-Cribbs, MSW, PhD): Young and Uninsured in Oklahoma

Julie is an Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work. The number of uninsured individuals in Oklahoma has reached approximately 600,000 individuals. Almost half of Oklahoma’s uninsured are between the ages of… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Jeffrey Alderman, M.D.): The silent problem in Oklahoma health care

Jeffrey Alderman, M.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine in Tulsa. With Medicaid cuts looming and the federal government entertaining efforts to shift the costs of Medicare… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma Named Early Innovator: $54 million to build the best health care technology in the country

The ‘Oklahoma Health Insurance Exchange’ will begin serving as an online marketplace for individual and small group consumers to buy private insurance in 2014.  Online insurance exchanges – which we discussed in this recent blog post –  are one of… Read more [More...]

Health Care Reform (6): Implementing Insurance 'Exchanges'

This is the sixth in an ongoing series of posts examining the Affordable Care Act, including previous posts on the Temporary High Risk Pool and tax credits for small businesses.  You can also visit the health care reform page on… Read more [More...]