Topic: Health

New Census data shows Oklahoma fell further behind the U.S. on poverty and uninsured rate in 2016

By: Gene Perry
September 14, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
New Census data shows the percentage of families living in poverty in Oklahoma increased in 2016, even as the national poverty rate declined to its lowest point since 2008. In 2016, almost one out of six Oklahomans (16.3 percent) were making… Read more [More...]

Loss of federal prevention funds will lead to more unintended teen pregnancies

By: David Blatt
September 11, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
If we want to make sure every Oklahoman has the chance to become a productive, healthy adult, then preventing teen pregnancies is one of the most important things we can do. While some teen mothers and their children manage to beat… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma has an ambitious plan to bring health insurance premiums down. Here’s how.

By: Carly Putnam
August 21, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Last year, health care premiums in Oklahoma for policies offered on Healthcare.gov by the state’s lone remaining nongroup insurer soared by more than 70 percent, the highest increase that year. In response, the state is now poised to use the… Read more [More...]

It’s time to expand Medicaid in Oklahoma

By: Carly Putnam
August 9, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
At long last, it appears that the Affordable Care Act will remain the law of the land. Efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have fallen apart over deep and fundamental schisms around health care within the Republican party, particularly… Read more [More...]

The table is set to expand Medicaid in Oklahoma (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
August 4, 2017 // 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. Years ago, when I was in the legislature, I was accused by an editor of one of… Read more [More...]

Attempts to repeal Affordable Care Act put Oklahoma patients in jeopardy (Guest post: Teresa Huggins)

By: Guest
July 26, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Teresa Huggins is CEO of Stigler Health and Wellness Center in eastern Oklahoma. Being raised in small town, rural Oklahoma comes with its benefits.  Among those benefits are the close friendships, supports and cohesiveness of knowing everyone; however, many communities… Read more [More...]

New Senate health care draft does not fix bill’s core problems and makes some of them worse

By: Gene Perry
July 17, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Last week, Senate Republican leaders released a “new” version of their health care bill. We wrote before about how the first draft of this bill would make Americans pay more for worse health coverage and how it would undercut the… Read more [More...]

Under health care bill, many could lose coverage to pay for tax cuts for a few (Capitol Update)

By: Steve Lewis
July 7, 2017 // 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. Most of the action last week seemed to come from the federal level, and it was focused… Read more [More...]

Health care is increasingly central to Oklahoma’s economy

By: Gene Perry
July 5, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
If you ask a person on the street what Oklahoma’s economy is known for, two industries likely to come to mind are oil and gas drilling and agriculture. Yet when we look at the jobs Oklahomans are working in today,… Read more [More...]

Watch This: A True Medicaid Story

By: Carly Putnam
July 3, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Joshua Proffitt is a college student at East Georgia State College. He’s made the Dean’s List with a 3.5 GPA, wants to work in radio broadcasting, and has a remarkable ability to predict NASCAR results, earning him the nickname, “The… Read more [More...]