Thursday, May 9, 2013
OKLAHOMA CITY – Insure Oklahoma, a successful, state-based insurance program serving the uninsured, has been scheduled to end December 31 if federal funding is pulled in an attempt to meet requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
“This is yet another example of Obamacare infringing on state rights,” Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner John D. Doak said. “The federal government is preventing Oklahoma from doing what is best for our state, plain and simple.”
Insure Oklahoma provides subsidies for eligible Oklahomans to purchase health care coverage and currently serves nearly 30,000 working Oklahomans across the state. The program operates from federal Medicaid money, state tobacco tax revenue, employer contributions and employee contributions to fund private insurance plans for Oklahomans who earn up to 200 percent of poverty level.
“The President cannot continue to make positive claims regarding health care due to ACA when the law will completely shut down a very successful health care program such as this,” stated Doak. “This will effectively force thousands of people off of their health insurance plan and into ACA plans, which proves we have been lied to. The ACA has never been about getting health care coverage, but about getting people under a federally-controlled health plan.”
Federal officials have made it clear that without changes to the program, Insure Oklahoma will not be able to continue past the end of the year. Oklahoma is required to let officials know by July 1 if the program will conform to ACA requirements.
About the Oklahoma Insurance Department
The Oklahoma Insurance Department, an agency of the State of Oklahoma, is responsible for the education and protection of the insurance-buying public and for oversight of the insurance industry in the state.
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For more information contact:
Kelly Collins
(405) 522-0683
kelly.collins@oid.ok.gov