Health care working group membership announced

The co-chairs of a newly formed legislative health care working group are among the leading proponents of Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma.

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by Ray Carter

Reform Health Care, Don’t Expand Welfare

THE ISSUE 

• Health-Care Reform 

THE PRINCIPLES 

• State government should not further disincentivize work and create a new dependency class by expanding medical welfare entitlements. 

  Over and over, Oklahoma has wisely rejected Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. But  like a recurring nightmare, proposals just keep turning up.

  Expansion states have added millions of able-bodied, working-age adults to welfare—more than double the number predicted, generating massive cost overruns. This has depleted resources for traditional Medicaid beneficiaries— low-income pregnant women, children, the aged, blind, and disabled—and strained funding for other core services, like education and public safety.

Federal judge could quash new health insurance options for Oklahoma small businesses

Small businesses in Oklahoma are taking advantage of new options for more affordable health insurance thanks to regulatory reform taken by the Trump administration last June. But a recent U.S. District Court ruling regarding association health plans (AHPs) puts these options in jeopardy.

Under new, relaxed regulations from the federal government that broadened the legal definition of “employers,” small businesses and the self-employed can more easily band together by geography or industry and form an association that allows them to purchase health insurance as if they were a large single employer. This rule change from the U.S. Department of Labor can greatly benefit small businesses because small employers can pay up to 18 percent more on average than large companies for the same health insurance, according to research from the National Conference of State Legislatures.