Topic: Health

The next big health care idea

By: David Blatt
May 7, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
This week, the New York Times magazine ran an extended interview with President Obama on his economic program, while The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza profiled Obama’s budget director, Peter Orzsag.  Both pieces devoted considerable attention to health care reform, and… Read more [More...]

Safeguarding Medicaid eligibility in the budget downturn

By: David Blatt
April 7, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
During the last state fiscal crisis, from 2002 -04, funding for Oklahoma’s Medicaid program was hit hard. In FY ’02 and FY ’03, as revenues began to plummet, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) put coverage of almost all non-mandatory… Read more [More...]

Evaluating SoonerCare

By: David Blatt
April 4, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In the early 1990’s, faced with health care costs that were rising at unmanageable rates and widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of the state’s Medicaid program, the Oklahoma Legislature created the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) as  a stand-alone agency… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma Setting the Curve

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
April 3, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
A new report released by the National Alliance of Mental Illness grades the states on their overall care and treatment of people with mental illness. Sadly, the nation’s overall grade is a D, with not a single state making an… Read more [More...]

Access to care and quality of care

By: David Blatt
March 31, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Recently, The Oklahoman criticized OK Policy for our opposition to a proposal under legislative consideration that would waive existing state laws that require insurance companies to provide coverage of basic health benefits as part of any policy for young adults.… Read more [More...]

State Coverage Initiative looks at options for expanding coverage

By: David Blatt
March 13, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Over the past two years,  Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland has been spearheading an extensive effort known as the State Coverage Initiative (SCI) to develop a plan to extend health insurance coverage to a sizable segment of the 640,000 Oklahomans who… Read more [More...]

Legislative Proposals to Waive Benefit Coverage Obligations

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
March 2, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Two bills under consideration by the 2009 Legislature would allow health insurance companies to offer insurance policies to individuals under the age of 40 that do not cover health services that must otherwise be provided under state law. These mandated… Read more [More...]

Expanding Access to Affordable Health Insurance

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
October 23, 2008 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The availability and cost of health insurance rank among the most worrisome issues facing OKlahoma families and among the most pressing challenges confronting Oklahoma policymakers. This fall, the Oklahoma Health Care Task Force has been meeting to examine the crisis… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s Uninsured

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
September 29, 2008 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that 641,000 Oklahoman under the age of 65 were without health insurance coverage in 2006-07, which is more than one out of every five non-elderly Oklahomans. This fact sheet from OK Policy looks… Read more [More...]

Families USA: Health Reform in Oklahoma – Building on a Solid Foundation

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
September 22, 2008 // Updated: May 2, 2019
On September 22, 2008, the Oklahoma Health Care Reform Task Force heard a presentation from Kathleen Stoll, Deputy Executive Director of Families USA, a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C. that brings the voice of consumers to federal and state… Read more [More...]