Gov. Mary Fallin said Tuesday that she is optimistic the state will be allowed to continue the Insure Oklahoma program for at least another year.
“I don’t have confirmation totally of this,” Fallin told the Tulsa Regional Chamber, “but I have good word we may get another one-year extension of Insure Oklahoma.”
The state-supported program subsidizes health insurance for low-income workers and small businesses that otherwise would not be able to afford it. It was to be eliminated under terms of the Affordable Care Act, but the federal government allowed it to remain in place after Oklahoma declined the expanded Medicaid program.
Under expanded Medicaid, Insure Oklahoma would have been redundant because its clients would have been covered by either Medicaid or the national health insurance exchanges.
People are also reading…
Although facing two primary challengers on Tuesday and two more in the Nov. 4 general election, Fallin is expected to begin a second term in January. She said developing new school academic standards after the repeal of Common Core and addressing prescription drug addiction are among her priorities.
“There is nothing more important to Oklahoma’s future than education and having a highly skilled, educated workforce, and holding people accountable to measure our results, to make sure our children receive the education that they need,” Fallin said.
Fallin said Common Core became “tainted” by the “conversation going on nationally.”
“We have a big challenge ahead of us,” Fallin said later when asked about the process of developing new standards.
Fallin said she wants to try again next year to enact a law requiring doctors to check a computerized database before prescribing certain addictive drugs. Such legislation died in the Legislature this year, largely because of opposition from physicians.
The measure is intended to check “doctor shopping,” the practice of getting prescriptions from more than one source.
“A lot of our criminals have addiction problems,” Fallin said. “Prescription drugs are the No. 1 killer for drug abuse.”
In a somewhat lighter vein, Fallin said she has not tried noodling but would like to go wild boar hunting and buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, “so I can embarrass my kids once again.”
