Oklahoma panel won’t study proposed health mandates

A legislative task force created to review health insurance mandates plans to review only the 38 existing health coverage requirements in Oklahoma. No new or proposed coverage requirements will be discussed, the group’s chairman said.

Sen. Cliff Branan, R-Oklahoma City, chairman of the task force, which met for the first time Tuesday, said the group will focus on determining whether existing health insurance mandates were accomplishing their goals. Legislation authored by Branan last session created the task force.

That was a blow to advocates who had hoped that the task force might discuss increasing health insurance coverage for children with autism or cancer patients.

"I have concerns about the purpose of this task force,” said Wayne Rhode, who has pushed for insurance coverage for therapy for children with autism. "They say they want to make sure mandates are doing what they’re supposed to, however, it also seems like they want to create another hurdle to make it more difficult to get a mandate on the books. I just don’t know where this goes, there’s no next step for this.”

Compared with surrounding states, Oklahoma has the lowest number of health insurance mandates at 38, said Kim Holland, insurance commissioner.