Bingman Pulls Medicaid Work-Around Bill
Alternate Medicaid funding bill sidelined for the rest of session
By WAYNE GREENE World Senior Writer & BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau on May 10, 2013
OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Bill 640 – which seeks to bring “Obamacare” Medicaid money to the state without objectionable federal rules – will not be considered by the Oklahoma Legislature this year, Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman said Thursday.
“I don’t think we have given our members a chance to properly vet the bill,” Bingman, R-Sapulpa, told reporters after the end of the legislative week. “Throwing some language out the last week of session is not a good approach.”
The proposal didn’t go through the usual legislative committee process and was sure to be looked at suspiciously by lawmakers, he said.
“(T)he timing of the thing makes it very difficult and so that’s probably another good reason to wait until we have had some time to get public input and give members a chance to actually look at the language before we throw a bill out there and take a vote,” he said.