State legislative update – second deadline approaches
Posted on: 3/14/18
March 15 is the deadline for bills to be voted on the floor of the house of introduction (House bills approved on the House floor; Senate bills approved on the Senate floor). Bills that pass will go to the opposite house for consideration and those that do not are dead for the remainder of this session.
Caretakers' Medicaid eligibility reduced to 20 percent
SB 1030,
Brecheen/Roberts, requires the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) to seek a Medicaid waiver to reduce Medicaid eligibility for the parent/caretaker group to 20 percent of the federal poverty limit (FPL). OHA opposes this bill and it passed the Senate 25-17.
Under current law, those in the parent/caretaker group may receive Medicaid if they make 40 percent of the federal poverty level. This bill cuts that in half and adults in a family of three would only receive assistance from Medicaid if they make less than $4,084. Oklahoma would lose $118 million in federal matching funds if this bill is approved.
- A single parent with one child taking home $625 per month would no longer be eligible for health coverage under SoonerCare.
- At 20 percent FPL, the monthly income level would be just $275 per month.
- More than 40,000 Oklahoma parents would lose their health care if SB 1030 is not stopped.
Sen. A.J. Griffin, R-Guthrie, reminded Brecheen that during the bill’s consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee she had inquired about the number of benefit recipients in the population who were receiving mental health and substance abuse treatment. Brecheen said again he did not know.
Griffin noted that benefits would be cut to less than $1,000 per participant under Brecheen’s plan and asked whether that would cover women’s gynecological care, including birth control that prevented them from having additional children. Brecheen said he did not know. The bill moves to the House of Representatives for consideration.
OHA opposes Freestanding ER/Insurance bills
OHA is asking House members to vote NO on HB 3228 and HB 3230, by
Rep. Lewis Moore. These bills will increase health care costs statewide. Oklahoma hospitals already provide more than $577 million in uncompensated care annually. Oklahoma hospitals take all patients regardless of ability to pay. To support trauma, burn centers, cancer centers, and neonatal units, hospitals need funding stability and predictability. Oklahoma hospitals have already taken nearly a 20 percent cut in Medicaid rates since 2010.
OHA is calling upon House members not to make a bad funding situation worse by eroding further the private and state/education employee health insurance market.
- HB 3228 forces health plans to pay the highest rate to out-of-network providers, therefore increasing health insurance costs to everyone and eroding the provider network.
- HB 3230 allows for state licensing of non-hospital owned “Free Standing Emergency Rooms” that do not have to meet hospital standards of care and do not take “all emergencies” or accept Medicare or Medicaid. They specialize in serving the privately insured urban wealthy and do not serve rural or low-income areas.
- HB 3230, Free-standing ERs, will only be possible if HB 3228, highest insurance rate, becomes law.
(Lynne White)