Penalizing the uninsured in Oklahoma
OFFICIAL PROPOSES curbING driver’s LICENSES, football TICKETS OF THOSE WITHOUT HEALTH PLANS
BY DON MECOY
Comments 
322
Published: November 21, 2008
No health insurance, no football tickets.
Oklahoma must take drastic steps to improve its dismal ranking in the number of residents who have no health insurance, state
Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said Thursday during her agency’s Summit on the High Cost of Health Insurance. Barring a law requiring the purchase of health insurance, which Holland concedes would be a political long shot, "inducements” that penalize those who fail to insure themselves would help, she said.
Kim Holland Insurance commissioner
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Potential penalties
• No personal exemption on state income tax.
• No OU, OSU season football tickets.
• No hunting or fishing license.
• No driver’s license.
• No homestead exemption.
• No in-state tuition discount.
Among the possible inducements Holland proposed was forfeiture of football season tickets to
University of Oklahoma or
Oklahoma State University games, forfeiture of lottery or gaming winnings, loss of state income tax deductions or licenses to drive, hunt or fish.
"None of those are very pleasant, but there needs to be a consequence,” Holland said.
A survey this year by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one-third of Oklahomans have no health coverage, the highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation. A telephone survey released by the
Oklahoma Health Care Authority found that about 16.7 percent of Oklahomans — or 579,036 residents — lack health insurance.
Uncompensated medical coverage in Oklahoma totals nearly $1 billion, Holland said.
Holland said policymakers need courage to enact major changes to boost the state’s poor standing for health care coverage of its residents.
State
Rep. Kris Steele, co-chair of the House Health Care Reform Task Force, said requiring Oklahomans to purchase health insurance is not a popular stance among lawmakers.
"I believe the place to start is to create a situation within our state that people are without excuse for not having health insurance,” Steele said. "Once we get to the point where people are without excuse, then we create the incentives.”
Those incentives would include rewarding those who obtain insurance and punishing those who don’t, said Steele, R-Shawnee.
"You need the carrot and the stick,” he said.
Holland said the use of inducements, such as revoking in-state tuition discounts for uninsured Oklahomans, would send a message. "We have developed this culture over the years that some don’t feel like they have to pay their medical bills,” she said.
Insure Oklahoma, which uses state and federal money to help small businesses get health insurance for employees, probably is the best vehicle to make health care coverage more accessible, she said.
Related Topics:
Health and Fitness,
Medicine,
Domestic Policy,
Social Policy,
Political Policy,
Politics,
Income Taxes,
Taxes,
Health Care Policy,
Health Care Costs,
Health Care Issues
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Requiring people who can barely pay their utilities each month to buy health insurance with copays so high they can never afford to use it anyway is the most draconian and sadistic bit of legislation for corporate profit ever devised.
My health insurance is almost useless requiring a $1500 minimum before it even goes into effect.
I can't imagine how a "paycheck to paycheck" laborer could afford $400 per month for insurance and then another $1500 to even use it while making $1800-$2200 per month after taxes.
This hag has no concept of reality and the burden on Oklahoma Hospitals is a direct result of her stingy corporate buddies freezing wages for laborers for 20 years.Every poor person I know wishes they could afford insurance but if they make less than $14 per hour(like 1/2 of Oklahoma's workers) they are dreaming.
You'd better work hard for her. If she has to get up from her lobster and caviar dinner party, and come down to the slave quarters, some of you might be sorry.
Work hard and she might let you suck on the shells.
Do you work for a company that hires people through pimp (temp) agencies because they don't want to have to provide benefits to new or temporary employees?
Does it matter to you that almost none of those pimp (temp) agencies offer health care insurance to their new and temporary employees?
How many of you work for a company that intentionally hires part time employees to start out and tells them they’ll be eligible for benefits once they're working full time, but then never give them more than 35 hours a week so they can avoid providing the elusive benefits?
Now, try to imagine yourselves in this situation. Suppose your 21 year old daughter had an accident that required multiple surgeries, including heart, lung and brain surgery followed up with a few years of therapy to recover. Then suppose after the first surgery your employer suddenly decided to lay you off and since your particular employer is exempt from the Family Medical Leave Act, he can do it? Are you even aware of how many businesses and government agencies don’t have to honor the Family and Medical Leave Act?
Finally, suppose while in the process of dealing with all this other trauma, some ignorant bureaucrat with a Socialist agenda and control issues decides she might just refuse to let you renew your driver’s license because you are now without insurance and it doesn’t matter that you’ve always paid your medical bills. Now, you have a disabled daughter to take care of for at least another year before you can go back to work but if she has her way you’ll have no way to get a job because you won’t have a driver’s license either. This is my situation but the others that I mentioned are a LOT more common than most of you could imagine. I know people in every one of those situations and they do not spend their hard earned money on wasteful things like season football or lottery tickets.
Quite often I copy and paste postings and forward them to local, state and federal government. Sometimes I get a response, sometimes I don't but that does not stop me from protesting or thanking them when they do something beneficial (this is rare).
Holland and Morrissete are not simply idiots. They are dangerous as they actually believe this is what we need regardless of violations to our civil rights. God and heaven save us from those who say "I am doing this for your own good".
Yes, I fully intend to forward this to all those who say they "represent" me. ppppfffftttt
Don't just comment about it - call, write or email your state legislator RIGHT NOW and tell them you don't want the government penalizing anyone for not buying health insurance.
Making your own decisions about your life is a RIGHT not an excuse!
Oh Please, don't take my beloved Sooner tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Holland Goes To Max For Democrats
State Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland has gone to the max to help build a strong state Democratic Party, becoming only the second statewide Democratic office holder to donate $5,000.00 to party coffers.
Holland, who was appointed by Gov. Brad Henry less than a year ago, joins long-time Democratic Party supporter Attorney General Drew Edmondson as the only two statewide elected Democrats to make a maximum donation this year.
"I am proud to be a Democrat and I want our party to be a strong, viable force in changing Oklahoma for the better," Holland said. "If I don’t do all that I can to help the party and other Democrats, how can I ask others to do it?"
Holland has also started promoting the party’s "1 In A Million" campaign to boost small donor contributions by encouraging people to take part in the effort at each of her events, speeches and other political gatherings.
PJ -- OKC