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NORMAN — A Democrat and Republican agree that the Obama Administration’s health care plan is here to stay, at least for now, so politicians need to learn how to make the law work for Oklahomans.
Civic activist Jim Huff told about 75 fellow Cleveland County Democrats in Norman on Friday that state lawmakers need to take advantage of Medicaid benefits aimed particularly to uncovered children age 6 and younger.
“States can opt out of this,” he said, but it makes more sense for Oklahomans to opt for this kind of care rather than having those poor children show up in emergency rooms.
Republican U.S. Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma City told The Associated Press earlier this week that he supports key reforms including coverage of a patient’s pre-existing conditions by health insurers and the transferability of insurance policies from one employer to another.
Overall, he wishes the Affordable Care Act was repealed.
Lankford noted that the GOP majority in the U.S. House has voted to repeal the health care legislation 26 times since it was signed into law by President Obama two years ago, but it is continually blocked by the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate.
Huff, a longtime educator and major supporter of the American Federation of Teachers, noted that Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin changed her mind and opted to reject a $54.6 million federal grant to help create a health insurance exchange for uninsured Oklahoma residents, as required by the new federal law.
Federal law requires that by 2013, nearly every Oklahoman must be offered insurance coverage, so the U.S. government will intercede in Oklahoma to make it happen.
An estimated 700,000 Oklahomans _ one out of every five _ were without health insurance coverage in 2010, according to U.S. census data.
Huff said key components of the Affordable Care Act include a provision that will provide health insurance for 32 million uninsured Americans.
The act also bans lifetime limits on the amount of coverage a person can get which is “extremely important,” he said.
Already in effect is a clause that allows children under age 26 to keep their parents’ health insurance.
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