Medicaid Rejection Work-Around Bill Gaining Attention
APNewsBreak: Legislators seek optional plan to provide health coverage to uninsured Oklahomans
By Sean Murphy
OKLAHOMA CITY — A group of Republican lawmakers has developed an alternative plan to provide health coverage to uninsured Oklahomans that would require most recipients to work and pay modest copayments, The Associated Press has learned.
A draft copy of a bill obtained by the AP on Tuesday shows the Oklahoma Plan for Consumer Health Choice and Accountability would apply to Oklahoma residents who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $31,000 for a family of four. The plan could help provide health insurance coverage to up to 150,000 people who are currently uninsured, according to a tentative estimate from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.
The plan includes some elements of Insure Oklahoma, a premium assistance program that uses Medicaid funds to help provide coverage to about 30,000 low-income, working Oklahomans. It also builds on a proposal approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature in neighboring Arkansas that would allow the use of federal Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance.
Under the current draft of the bill, eligible Oklahomans would include those who are working or actively seeking work, single parents with children under 12 years old, those caring for elderly or disabled family members, and those eligible to receive mental health care services from the state. Prisoners also would be eligible for coverage, a move that could save the state millions of dollars in health care costs for inmates, although it’s likely that language will be removed from the final draft.