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Gov. Mary Fallin urges Oklahoma Legislature for health care fix

May 17, 2013 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Gov. Mary Fallin proposed a last-minute legislative change on Friday to the state's Insure Oklahoma program that would direct $50 million in state tobacco taxes to pay for more than 9,000 people who are expected to lose their health insurance under the program. Insure Oklahoma currently... Read More

Health care law changes could affect Oklahoma tribes May 15, 2013 Some Native Americans could be forced to pay a fine or buy their own health insurance under changes enacted in the federal health care overhaul. Read More

Fundamental freedoms eroding as Obamacare ages May 15, 2013 Obamacare marked its third birthday recently, but Americans are not celebrating the health care law outgrowing its “terrible twos.” Unlike a toddler's tantrums, Obamacare's anti-life mandates will not improve with age. Rather, under the guiding hand of the Obama administration and its allies in the abortion... Read More

Medicare program not a great success May 15, 2013 Regarding Douglas Beall's “Leave Part D alone in Medicare reform” (Point of View, May 11): As a physician and also a beneficiary of Medicare, I don't see this program as a great success story. Medicare isn't allowed to negotiate the price of drugs, as is the military. Insurance companies are allowed to change... Read More

Doctor: In reforming Medicare, leave Part D alone May 11, 2013 Facing tough budget negotiations, President Obama says he's open to modest Medicare reform. That sounds promising, but only until you take Washington double-talk into account. The president recently pledged to “reduce taxpayer subsidies to prescription drug companies.” But this pledge contains a hidden... Read More

Oklahoma House approves changes to abortion reporting May 09, 2013 Abortion providers in Oklahoma would be required to answer dozens of new questions on a state questionnaire under a bill given final approval in the House despite concerns the bill paves the way for costly litigation against the state. Read More

Insure Oklahoma federal waiver is denied May 08, 2013 The insurance program Insure Oklahoma, which provides insurance coverage for about 30,000 low-income Oklahomans, will expire Dec. 31. Federal officials said they are willing to help come up with a workable program. Read More

Feds say Insure Oklahoma program must change May 08, 2013 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services say an Oklahoma state program that uses Medicaid funding to provide insurance to 30,000 low-income Oklahomans must change in order to keep its funding. The Insure Oklahoma program needs a renewed waiver to use Medicaid funding to help... Read More

Obamacare bribe balloon pierced by GOP solons May 08, 2013 Governors don't always get what they want from their legislatures, particularly when lawmakers are predominantly from the other political party. Republican governors who want to expand Medicaid aren't getting what they want from lawmakers in their own party. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has been excoriated by... Read More

Medicaid proposal by two Oklahoma GOP lawmakers has some appeal, but Obamacare still a bad idea

May 05, 2013 INSPIRED by an Arkansas initiative, two Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma want to use federal dollars intended for Medicaid expansion to instead buy private insurance for lower-income residents. Private insurance is preferable to Medicaid coverage, so the proposal by Rep. Doug Cox and Sen. Brian Crain has some... Read More

A couple refreshing views from the halls of academia May 06, 2013 WE'RE inured to long-winded, sometimes egg-headed, pronouncements from academia. These are usually of the liberal persuasion. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the closely spaced conclusions of two academics that go against the grain. On April 16, Harvard professor Jeffrey Frankel concluded that the primary... Read More

Reform Medicaid in Oklahoma, don't expand it May 03, 2013 The hospital lobby continues to argue that Oklahoma must expand Medicaid, a key component of the president's health care law. Their flawed arguments serve as a thin veil for their real agenda: increasing their bottom line. They argue that Oklahoma must devise a state scheme to “recapture” Medicaid dollars. If... Read More

Washington Examiner: Obamacare, Benghazi mark shaky start to president's second term May 02, 2013 SUCCESSFUL presidential second terms have been hard to come by since the end of World War II. Dwight Eisenhower signed the 1957 Civil Rights Act and dispatched federal troops to escort black students to public schools in Little Rock, Ark., but then came Sputnik and the 1958 recession. Richard Nixon resigned in the... Read More

Effect of Obamacare on insurance premiums April 28, 2013 Cal Hobson (Your Views, April 14) wrote that U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, made inaccurate claims regarding the effect of Obamacare on health insurance premiums. Coburn had said he believed health insurance premiums would double next year when Obamacare took affect. Hobson interpreted a report by the Society of... Read More

Clock is running for businesses to make health care coverage decisions

April 28, 2013 Under new health reform laws that take effect Jan. 1, larger businesses — those with 50 or more full time equivalent employees — must offer health insurance or pay penalties. Read More

ScissorTales: More pointless protests over Keystone pipeline April 27, 2013 ANOTHER day, another pointless protest along the route of the Keystone XL pipeline's southern leg. Meantime, Americans remain supportive of the more controversial northern leg. Protesters in Oklahoma (but not necessarily from Oklahoma) this week continued their childish antics of fastening themselves to... Read More

Woody Guthrie Center brings folk singer back to Oklahoma April 27, 2013 Located in Tulsa's Brady Arts District, new home of the Woody Guthrie Archives opens its doors to the public for the first time Saturday afternoon. Read More

Group of Oklahoma pastors urge Gov. Mary Fallin to accept federal Medicaid expansion in Obamacare

April 26, 2013 Leaders with the Oklahoma Conference of Churches, an ecumenical coalition of faith organizations in the state, submitted a letter to Gov. Mary Fallin's office on Thursday, asking Fallin and the state Legislature to reconsider the decision to refuse federal funds to expand Medicaid in Oklahoma through the federal... Read More

Oklahoma man's death due to hantavirus April 24, 2013 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma State Department of Health reports a Texas County man has died due to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome. The department says the death is the first due to hantavirus since 2001 and is the third confirmed hantavirus death since it was first recognized in the U.S. in 1993.... Read More

Shifting the blame April 24, 2013 Matthew Dukes (Your Views, April 19) blames Obamacare for an expected 12 percent increase in his health insurance premiums. Does he think his employer or his insurance carrier would ever admit they were jacking his rates just in case, because they can? He also blames government for a 5 percent to 15 percent... Read More