Insure Oklahoma gets bipartisan boost

5/10/2009 by The Associated Press -- The Tulsa World/ The Oklahoman ----

It's taken a few years for Oklahoma's Republican legislative leadership to embrace an innovative program conceived by the state's Democratic governor for reducing the number of Oklahomans who don't have health insurance. 

But GOP lawmakers have finally come around to support Gov. Brad Henry's Insure Oklahoma premium assistance program in a bipartisan coalition that is working to address an issue that concerns Republicans and Democrats alike: health care.

Last week, Henry signed Republican-backed legislation designed to enhance Insure Oklahoma, originally enacted in 2004 to help small businesses provide health care coverage for their low- and middle-income employees and reduce the state's estimated 619,000 uninsured residents.

Funded by revenue from the state's tobacco tax and federal matching dollars, the public-private partnership has enrolled more than 18,000 Oklahomans in employee-sponsored or individual health insurance plans and is signing up new participants at the rate of about 1,000 a month.

GOP lawmakers, some of whom were only lukewarm about Insure Oklahoma when it first was proposed, now say it has gained national notoriety and is being used as a model by other states who are developing their own premium assistance plans.

They say the improvements they proposed will help increase enrollment and make health insurance more accessible while reducing the cost of health insurance plans.

"It's the kind of bipartisanship that gets things done. I think the people of Oklahoma would want that from their elected officials," said Republican House Speaker Pro Tem Kris Steele, who lives in the governor's hometown of Shawnee and worked closely with Henry in developing additions to Insure Oklahoma.

"This is a step in the right direction in reducing the number of uninsured," Steele said. "I feel very fortunate to be able to work with Governor Henry on this issue."

Henry, too, expressed his gratitude by commending Steele for his leadership as he signed the Insure Oklahoma changes into law.

"Governor Henry is very proud of Insure Oklahoma and a big promoter of it because he created it," said Henry's communications director, Paul Sund. "It's an effective way to deliver insurance to those Oklahomans who have had difficulty finding affordable coverage in the past."

Under the program, participating employers and employees pay a portion of their health insurance premiums with the state picking up the rest of the tab.

The state pays 60 percent of the cost, employers pay 25 percent and employees pay 15 percent. For every dollar the state invests in the program, it receives approximately two dollars in matching federal money.

"It was such a popular program, particularly with the business community, that it won many converts over time," Sund said. "Many of its early critics were won over by its track record."

Steele, author of the bill, co-chaired a Health Care Reform Task Force that met last fall to explore ways to reduce Oklahoma's uninsured population and improve the state's overall health.

The state was ranked 43rd nationally in the 2008 "America's Health Rankings" report compiled from data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Center for Health Statistics and other agencies.

Lawmakers said the legislation signed by Henry will make Insure Oklahoma more customer-friendly, especially at the point of eligibility determination and enrollment.

Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, who also co-chaired last year's health care task force, said the program will become more accessible by decreasing the cost of health insurance policies and opening it up to more uninsured people.

The new guidelines will allow insurance providers to offer basic preventative plans with catastrophic coverage by relaxing some of Oklahoma's health insurance mandates so more low-cost choices can be offered to uninsured Oklahomans, said Cox, an emergency medicine physician at Integris Grove General Hospital.

Steele said 60 percent of Oklahoma's uninsured residents are young, healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 40.

"This young, healthy population doesn't see the value of paying for something that they think they will never use," Steele said. "You tend to feel like you're invincible."

Oklahoma has 36 health insurance mandates for such procedures as immunizations for children, mammograms, breast reconstruction and prostate cancer screening. Some lawmakers believe mandates drive up the cost of health insurance.

Another low-cost option will be high deductible plans compatible with health savings accounts.

The legislation builds upon the current Insure Oklahoma infrastructure by establishing a Web site that will be managed by Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland's office that will identify available health insurance plans, what services the plans cover and what they cost, Steele said.

Known as the Oklahoma Exchange, it also will list qualified, credentialed insurance agents who can help people enroll in a plan.

The measure also would provide more enrollment options at the point of access to health care, like hospitals and other health care providers. Under the plan, the Oklahoma Exchange would be used to connect individuals without health insurance to coverage options.

Cox, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Health and Social Services, said the program can insure up to 40,000 Oklahomans before it exhausts its revenue source.

"That's a concern," Cox said. He said lawmakers will need to find other sources of revenue to continue building on the success of Insure Oklahoma.

"That may be when people seriously start looking at the provider fee," Cox said. Under that plan, health care facilities would return a small portion of their profit to the state in order to leverage additional federal matching money to pay for Insure Oklahoma.

"They will reap more back than they put in by doing so," he said.