Increasing health-care expense and a decreasing state budget have made it difficult for the Legislature to fund care for Oklahoma’s most vulnerable citizens, the aged, blind and disabled, as well as children from low-income homes and pregnant women. The Medicaid Rebalancing Plan addresses the issue and is not Medicaid expansion.
The Medicaid rolls actually will shrink rather than expand. Under this plan, more than 110,000 Medicaid recipients will be moved off the rolls and into the private marketplace through Insure Oklahoma. This will be a 17 percent decrease in our state’s Medicaid population. The plan can only be implemented with permission from the federal government. No permission would be required if it were expansion.
We have examined other states that refused to expand Medicaid and used some of their most successful ideas, plus tailored the plan to Oklahoma. Arkansas’ plan has decreased the number of uninsured and its health-care systems (especially in rural area) have gained financial stability. Its state expense has been lessened to greater extent in comparison to our escalating Oklahoma Medicaid costs.
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The proposed plan does have some expense. However, the primary source of funding does not come from federal dollars but state sources, many private dollars. Items being considered are dollars from hospitals already being used to fund Insure Oklahoma, a cigarette tax, a premium policy fee on health insurance, and others. These dollars are necessary with or without the plan to some extent to help preserve access to medical care for the Medicaid population.
The rebalancing plan will save us more than $5 billion in Medicaid expense over the next five years.
Yes, the plan does accept some federal dollars for the Insure Oklahoma program. However, we already receive many federal dollars for health care. For every dollar spent in the current Medicaid program, we get about $1.54 in federal match. In addition, we receive federal matching money for training doctors, medical research and physician recruitment to underserved areas. It is interesting that after each tornado or flood our Republican governor asks a disaster area be declared so we can receive federal dollars. We applaud our Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe when he secures federal dollars for our roads. We applaud our Republican Sen. James Lankford when he obtains federal dollars for our Oklahoma military bases. Our education system receives many, many federal dollars. Why are federal dollars for the health of the citizens of this great state considered tainted by comparison?
More than 1 million Oklahomans are served by Medicaid every year. This plan would move people off of the present Medicaid system into the public/private partnership of Insure Oklahoma at less expense to the state.
The new plan also promotes Republican concepts of self-sufficiency by rewarding behaviors such as continuing education and training, having a resume to gain employment on okjobs.com, and promotes family values.
The rising cost of our current Medicaid system is unsustainable. Many previous ideas to control costs have been prevented by the federal government, which has far too much control in our “state” Medicaid program. The new plan would lessen federal control.
The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs is campaigning against the plan, perhaps because a huge of source of its funding comes indirectly from tobacco companies, which are concerned the plan is considering a cigarette tax. Follow the money.
When we refused to expand Medicaid by accepting the “Obamacare” money, Gov. Mary Fallin challenged us to come up with an “Oklahoma Plan.” We have.
State Rep. Doug Cox, a Republican from Grove, is a physician.
Cox
