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November 13, 2008

Health task force wraps up work

Tim Talley

OKLAHOMA CITY — Ways to improve Oklahomans’ health and reduce the number of uninsured Oklahomans were submitted by state lawmakers Thursday as a legislative task force wrapped up its work on what is expected to be a top priority in the 2009 Legislature — health care.

Suggestions aired by lawmakers included improving access to health care and increasing the number of doctors and nurses, expanding a public-private partnership that helps small businesses provide health care coverage to their employees and urging Oklahomans to take personal responsibility for their health.

“Personal responsibility is going to be the keystone for getting control of costs,” said Rep. Ron Peterson, R-Broken Arrow. “If you’re obese, you need to become less obese. If you smoke, you need to quit smoking.”

Members of the Health Care Reform Task Force also said changes to the state’s civil justice system that would lower medical malpractice insurance costs would help increase the number of physicians in the state and control rising health care costs.

“We don’t want to decrease accessibility by scaring our health care providers away,” said Rep. Pam Peterson, R-Tulsa.

The ideas will be rolled into legislation to be considered by the Legislature, which convenes in February. The measures are expected to have the support of House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa.

“The speaker has made it very clear that health care is going to be a top priority,” said Rep. Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, co-chairman of the task force who has been designated speaker pro tem for the upcoming legislative session, the House’s No. 2 position.

Following months of hearings and testimony from health care experts, the recommendations of lawmakers followed common themes and included expansion of the Insure Oklahoma program, a public-private partnership between the state and small businesses that provides health care coverage for their low- and middle-income employees.

“We have the national model in a sense,” Steele said. “But I believe there’s room for improvement.”

The program, approved in 2004, is designed to reduce the state’s estimated 650,000 uninsured residents. It authorized the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the state’s Medicaid provider, to develop a program for adults, 19 to 64 years of age, whose income did not exceed 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $37,000 annually.

Under the program, the state pays 60 percent of insurance costs, the employer pays 25 percent and the employee pays 15 percent. The state’s portion of the cost is funded by tobacco tax revenue and federal Medicaid matching dollars.

Currently, about 15,000 people are enrolled in the Insure Oklahoma program, up from about 8,000 in March and 4,400 last fall. The program is enrolling about 1,000 people a month and is expected to reach its maximum enrollment of 40,000 people in about two years.

Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, an emergency medicine physician at Integris Grove General Hospital and chairman of the House Public Health Committee, has expressed frustration with federal delays in the authorization of federal funds for state-approved programs designed to further reduce the number of Oklahomans without health insurance.

Last year, lawmakers voted to expand the Insure Oklahoma program to permit small business workers to qualify if they make up to 250 percent of the federal poverty level, about $60,000.

Lawmakers also approved the All Kids Act, which allows families making up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify for government assistance in obtaining health care. Before, families had to make under 185 percent of the federal poverty line before their children qualified for Medicaid benefits.

Cox, co-chairman of the task force, said the state has been forced to delay expanding the programs while it awaits authorization by federal officials of additional Medicaid funds.

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