First, the Republican governor delayed implementing aspects of the ACA, otherwise known as Obamacare, in hopes that it would be rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. When that plan failed, she and others counted on the election of a Republican president to push its repeal. That plan didn’t work out so well, either. Finally, it’s […]
Medicaid
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The federal Titanic is sinking
This is an apt analogy for our nation’s current fiscal crisis. Because of an accounting gimmick where governments pretend future liabilities don’t exist and, therefore, don’t account for them, most Americans don’t know how big the problem really is. The amount typically reported, nearly $16 trillion, is actually only the surface of our debt. According […]
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LETTERS
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette. com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact […]
Posted inNews
LETTERS
Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette. com or sent online at okgazette.com, but include a city of residence and contact […]
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Oklahoma needs the Affordable Care Act
Sound familiar? Under the Affordable Care Act, states will be given an opportunity to opt into an expanded provision of Medicaid, effective 2014. This provision in the ACA is of vital interest for Oklahoma. It means 200,000 more Oklahomans will be eligible, if they enroll, to receive health insurance (about 29 percent of Oklahomans are […]
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Medicaid expansion vital
According to Mike Fogarty, CEO of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the uncompensated cost of treating the uninsured in Oklahoma exceeds $1 billion annually, most of it paid for by shifting the cost to insured families, while bad debt and charity care costs hospitals $365 million a year. Fogarty estimates that the $1 billion in […]
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LETTERS
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal;mso-outline-level:1″><span style=" Times New Roman”,”serif”;mso-fareast-Times New Roman”; mso-font-kerning:18.0pt;mso-fareast-language:ES”> Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette. com or sent […]
Posted inNews
LETTERS
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal;mso-outline-level:1″><span style=" Times New Roman”,”serif”;mso-fareast-Times New Roman”; mso-font-kerning:18.0pt;mso-fareast-language:ES”> Oklahoma Gazette provides an open forum for the discussion of all points of view in its Letters to the Editor section. The Gazette reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Letters can be mailed, faxed, emailed to pbacharach@okgazette. com or sent […]
Posted inNews
Oklahoma and Medicaid expansion
Based on the court’s ruling, Oklahoma now could choose not to expand Medicaid to cover more people without insurance living below the poverty line. But such a choice would squander the chance for as many as 180,000 struggling Oklahomans to get health insurance coverage while leaving hospitals and other health care providers on the hook […]
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The tipping point for families
In the U.S., most of us get it. We can’t spend a trillion dollars of borrowed money every year. The more we borrow without growth, the faster we hit that tipping point. There is a different “debt bomb” accelerating the tipping point in our nation. It is the ever-growing cost of the U.S. safety net […]