Health Care Issues

Medicaid/Oklahoma Plan
The Chamber supports efforts by Oklahoma’s leaders to develop an Oklahoma plan to extend health insurance coverage to Oklahoma’s uninsured residents and cover the costs of uncompensated care that are currently shifted to responsible employers and health care providers. Acceptance of federal funds should be considered

Mandates
The Chamber opposes new health insurance mandates and liability that will undermine an employer’s ability to provide quality health insurance at reasonable cost to employees.

Health Insurance Network
The Chamber supports the creation of an Oklahoma-led and private sector-based health insurance network that will provide a marketplace for Oklahomans and serve to prevent the imposition of burdensome federal mandates upon the State of Oklahoma required under the current federal health care law.

Research and Development
The Chamber will oppose efforts to unreasonably restrict the continued development of the state’s bioscience and research programs and will support efforts to foster an environment that is conducive to further research.

Physician Shortage
The Chamber supports incentives to recruit and retain Primary Care Physicians and Allied Health Professionals in Oklahoma, especially in rural and underserved areas, through expansion of residency programs in the state’s medical schools, scholarships, loan forgiveness and other incentives. We further support efforts to identify new funding streams dedicated to this initiative.

Oklahoma County Community
Health Network
The Chamber will work with members of the Oklahoma County Commission to transform the Health Care Safety Net to implement a Master Plan to assist the uninsured by establishing a single robust system for receiving, managing and distributing requests for donated specialty care.

Any Willing Provider
The Chamber opposes “any willing provider” legislation which would eliminate the incentive for medical providers to contract with managed care networks and, as a result, potentially frustrate efforts at cost and quality control and ultimately deny consumers the benefits of cost-reducing arrangements with providers.

Local Control
The Chamber supports legislation that would provide municipalities with local control over local issues such as tobacco use and smoking provided existing businesses are exempt or otherwise protected.

Wellness
The Chamber supports state wellness and prevention programs that serve to improve the health of Oklahoma citizens such as programs supported through the State Department of Health, outreach initiatives, as well as workplace and school-based wellness programs.

Alzheimer’s Disease

The Chamber will support the reinstatement of the OU Health Science Center’s brain autopsy program. This procedure will help researchers develop a better understanding of Alzheimer’s disease with the ultimate goal of finding a cure for this illness. We further support the creation of a state taskforce to review, and, if necessary, redraft the 2009 plan that considered effective strategies for treating and combating the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

Federal Issues
The Chamber supports improving health care quality, access and affordability without imposing new mandates and/or taxes on business. Therefore, the Chamber opposes a single-payer government-run/public option or health care system with government mandates.

The Chamber believes that employers drive innovation in health benefits and that market-driven health reforms are the best approach to reducing costs while promoting efficiency, wellness and quality of care.

For more information, please contact a member of our Government Relations staff.