{"id":31430,"date":"2019-04-24T21:01:12","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T02:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31430"},"modified":"2019-04-24T21:01:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T02:01:12","slug":"medicaid-expansion-supporters-urge-oklahoma-lawmakers-to-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/04\/24\/medicaid-expansion-supporters-urge-oklahoma-lawmakers-to-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid expansion supporters urge Oklahoma lawmakers to act"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

Jackie Fortier \/ Stateimpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Supporters of Medicaid expansion gather at the state Capitol on April 24, 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>

A couple of hundred people rallied in support of Medicaid expansion at the state capitol on April 24. <\/span>The rally was organized by a coalition of groups called Together Oklahoma, with the goal of pressuring state lawmakers to pass a bill expanding Medicaid in some form this legislative session. Supporters were bused in from Tulsa, Norman, Ardmore, McAlester, and Lawton. <\/span><\/p>

Medicaid is a government health insurance program that provides coverage to low-income people and families, including children, parents, pregnant women, seniors and people with disabilities. In states that have expanded the program, people can qualify by their income alone – for an individual the cut off would be an annual income of a little more than \u00a0$16,700 and about $34,600 for a family of four. Oklahoma is<\/span> one of 14 states <\/span><\/a>that have not expanded Medicaid, and the Sooner state <\/span>has some of the<\/span> strictest Medicaid eligibility requirements<\/span><\/a> in the country. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jackie Fortier \/ Stateimpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Jared Tartsah of Norman said he attended the rally to represent family members who couldn’t.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Jared Tartsah drove up from Norman for the rally. <\/span><\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m a Native American part of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma. I myself have been through some medical issues. In 2014 I had a bilateral pulmonary embolism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Tartsah says he supports expanding access to Medicaid for more low-income people because he knows what it\u2019s like not to have health insurance. After the Affordable Care Act passed he was able to purchase health insurance through the marketplace. <\/span><\/p>

\u201cI could be dead today, but I\u2019m not because of those options,\u201d Tartsah said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jackie Fortier \/ Stateimpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Ellen Bannister says she supports any kind of Medicaid expansion, but would prefer a full expansion like the recent ballot measure.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Ellen Bannister works in health care. \u00a0She says her two sons live with developmental disabilities and are covered by both private health insurance and Medicaid.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThey have very intense medical and support needs and so they are Medicaid recipients,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>

Bannister is worried about rural hospital closures and points to Medicaid expansion as a solution to the uncompensated care that hospitals give to uninsured patients. <\/span><\/p>

\u201cFrom my point of view, Medicaid is something that can help our state because Oklahoma is not a healthy state. And Medicaid expansion will help keep rural hospitals open,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jackie Fortier \/ Stateimpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Representative Marcus Mcentire was the only Republican to speak at the Medicaid expansion rally. Mcentire said he has been working on an expansion plan for a year and a half that he hopes to unveil soon.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Oklahoma voters may decide next year if more people should be eligible for Medicaid. A ballot initiative filed recently would expand access to low-income childless adults. <\/span><\/p>

Oklahoma has the second highest uninsured rate in the country and some of the poorest health outcomes. <\/span><\/p>

Expanding Medicaid would provide an estimated $900 million a year in federal money and cost over $100 million in state funds. <\/span><\/p>

Supporters need to gather about 178,000 signatures to qualify the question for the ballot. Governor Stitt has said he is against the ballot measure and would actively campaign against it.<\/span><\/p>

Meanwhile, after years of rejecting calls to expand Medicaid, some Republican state lawmakers are said to be considering a form of expansion legislation this session. <\/span>Senate bill 605<\/span><\/a> would expand the Insure Oklahoma program. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma has the second highest uninsured rate in the country and some of the poorest health outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":31435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[1002,1062,125],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31430"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31438,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31430\/revisions\/31438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}