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June 9, 2009

Rep. Steele talks about progress

State Rep. Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, spoke about the progress the state legislature made in healthcare reform at Monday’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

“I think that we’re going to look back and realize that this was one of the most historic (sessions) we’ve had for our legislative accomplishments,” Steele said.

He mentioned lawsuit reform and the alternative energy accomplishments along with education reform and balancing the budget. But the majority of Steele’s speech focused on healthcare.

In 2004 Steele was named chairman of the Health and Human Services committee. He remained head of that committee until he was named Speaker pro Tempore, a title which he currently holds.

Steele said that his first goal when named chair of the health committee was to reform Medicaid. He said that the state was only reimbursing hospitals 60 percent of what it cost them to care for those who could not afford health insurance.

In order to recoup these costs, hospitals and doctors would cost shift, meaning everyone who had to go to the emergency room or who had insurance was forced to pay higher prices.

The legislature quickly remedied this problem by reimbursing hospitals even more so that cost shifting has gone down each year.

Steele said that Oklahoma’s Medicaid reform has drawn national attention. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said Oklahoma has the best Medicaid system in the country.

Steele said that another problem of Oklahoma’s healthcare that has been addressed by the legislature is the amount of people who are uninsured. He said the most people who are uninsured in the state are those who are working and between the ages of 18 and 40.

This past year the state of Oklahoma joined 15 other states in providing a basic healthcare plan for 18 to 40 year olds that covers routine hospital visits, prescriptions and catastrophic injuries, such as car accidents.

“It’s much more affordable and appealing to that group of people,” Steele said of the basic healthcare plan.

In an effort to insure even more people, Steele said in 2004 the Tobacco Tax was passed to help fund Insure Oklahoma. The program is designed to subsidize private plans that are being paid in part by the employee and employer as long as they qualify.

In 2007 the legislature was told by the nursing home industry that Insure Oklahoma had to be fixed because their industry would not qualify for the plan. And with the large amount of baby boomers who will be looking toward nursing homes in 10 or 15 years, Steele said something had to be done to ensure that the nursing home employees would remain there and not leave to hospitals where better benefits might be found.

So eligibility was increased to cover businesses that employ up to 250 people.

“The great thing about Insure Oklahoma is that it is a capped program,” Steele said.

This means that as long as there is money available, people can be enrolled in the program. As soon as the money runs out, however, there will be no more entrance to the program.

As of right now, Steele said there are enough funds to insure 50,000 people. He said about 1,000 people are enrolling each month.

Also at the Chamber luncheon, representatives from Relay For Life discussed the upcoming event. They said that 10 more teams than last year have signed up and 130 survivors have been registered, which is up from 93 last year.

The event will occur on June 19 at Boomer Stadium.

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