Articles

The predictions were dire. Nursing homes and hospitals would close. Pregnant women in labor wouldn’t receive care. Thus the story told by state agency officials and lobbyists for big hospital corporations. The only way to prevent catastrophe was to raise taxes and massively expand Medicaid to able-bodied adults.

Today in Forbes, OCPA president Jonathan Small, along FGA's Jonathan Ingram and Josh Archambault, explains why OHCA's Medicaid "rebalance" plan would put the truly needy in danger and create perputual budget crises.

As details emerge about the Oklahoma Health Care Authority’s Obamacare Medicaid expansion rebalancing proposal, the most vulnerable Oklahomans, policymakers, and taxpayers should be very concerned.

Writing today in the Enid News & Eagle, OCPA president Jonathan Small critiques the Oklahoma Health Care Authority's latest proposal to expand Medicaid in the state and explains options to reform the program instead.

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) has proposed a plan to “rebalance” Medicaid eligibility in the Sooner State. But this “rebalancing” is really just an Obamacare expansion by another name. The plan has three major components: (1) increasing taxes to raise reimbursement rates for traditional Medicaid, (2) shifting enrollees (women and children) out of Medicaid in 2019, and (3) expanding Medicaid eligibility to a new class of able-bodied adults under Obamacare.

Oklahoma has become known for a number of efforts recently to implement policy with the intention of promoting freedom in the delivery and payment of health care. Oklahoma lawmakers have passed laws that protect the ability of medical providers and their patients to negotiate with each other and set up payment arrangements that benefit both parties.

Recently, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority announced another scheme to entangle Oklahoma with the Medicaid expansion proposed in the federal Affordable Care Act. The OHCA has attempted this a few times, and policymakers have wisely rejected the various proposals, refusing to repeat the mistakes of history.

Thousands of Oklahomans are losing their jobs. This reality means state government will have no choice but to cut spending.

In 2015, Oklahoma lawmakers passed a number of important health care reforms. But the work must continue. Oklahoma policymakers have the opportunity to continue to empower patients and medical providers.