Articles

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.

How bad is the situation with Oklahoma hospitals? Rural hospitals are under financial siege and are facing extreme difficulty in recruiting and retaining physicians to the rural areas.

During the 2015 legislative session, Oklahoma policymakers pursued pro-patient and pro-growth health care reforms. The reforms removed bureaucratic barriers for state and education employee health care and protected the rights of doctors and patients.

While accounts of the lives negatively affected by the numerous failed promises of the Affordable Care Act mount each day, an alarming story of abuse of a program (which was expanded by the ACA) intended for the poor has gone largely unnoticed.

Much work is left to make sure Oklahomans can get affordable care. Policymakers have made those prospects better by avoiding the Medicaid expansion trap and focusing their energy on market-based, consumer-driven reforms that increase access and affordability.