Topic: Health

Oklahoma thinks the unthinkable with health care cuts

By: David Blatt
February 23, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Should Oklahoma strip Medicaid health care coverage from people least able to afford insurance on their own? In a state that trails most of the nation in uninsured rates and health outcomes, who could defend this? Should the Department of… Read more [More...]

Push to privatize Medicaid could disrupt care for seniors and Oklahomans with disabilities

By: Carly Putnam
February 22, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
As directed by a law created last year, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) spent much of the fall exploring options to move the roughly 180,000 SoonerCare patients who are aged, blind, or have one or more disabilities (ABD) into… Read more [More...]

‘Complete Streets’ can be a path to a healthier, more prosperous Oklahoma

By: Elizabeth Armstrong
February 10, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Elizabeth Armstrong was a Fall 2015 OK Policy intern. She is pursuing a Master’s degree in Geography at Oklahoma State University where she also works as a Graduate Research Assistant. In ways far more important than many Oklahomans realize, the… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma has a chance to improve protections for pregnant workers

By: DeVon Douglass
February 8, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In 2005, Tashara Persky was working as the lead store clerk at an Oklahoma Dollar General Store. When she informed her supervisor that she was pregnant and that her doctor had told her not to lift more than 15 pounds,… Read more [More...]

Here are our top priorities for Oklahoma’s 2016 legislative session

By: David Blatt
February 4, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Over 1,700 bills and resolutions have been introduced for the 2016 legislative session, along with an equal number of measures from last session that remain alive and could still be considered this year. Despite the  plethora of legislation, there is… Read more [More...]

To improve Oklahoma’s health, we must reduce inequality (Guest Post: Candace Smith)

By: Guest
January 20, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Candace Smith is an OK Policy Research Fellow and a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) Norman Campus. She is also a research assistant at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services’… Read more [More...]

In Oklahoma, doors to health care shut for working families

By: Elizabeth Armstrong
January 4, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Elizabeth Armstrong is an OK Policy intern. She is pursuing a Master’s degree in Geography at Oklahoma State University where she also works as a Graduate Research Assistant. Her free time is spent playing with her daughter. Since the Affordable… Read more [More...]

Together, we can stop HIV/AIDS (Guest Post: Shannon Hall)

By: Guest
December 1, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Shannon Hall is the Executive Director of Tulsa CARES, a social services agency for people living with HIV/AIDS.  World AIDS Day is December 1st: a day of remembrance for the millions who have lost their lives to the disease, a… Read more [More...]

Budget troubles rolling back Oklahoma’s gains on health care (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
November 20, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Don’t touch Oklahoma’s Tobacco Settlement Trust Fund

By: David Blatt
November 18, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
As Oklahoma staggers through an apparently endless string of bad budget years, our investments in education, health care, public safety, and infrastructure that are tied to the annual budget cycle are suffering. Amid all the cuts and all the struggles… Read more [More...]