A state senator wants to save Oklahoma $84 million by changing Medicaid income requirements, a move that would make more than 43,000 currently covered adults ineligible.
Senate Bill 1030 by Sen. Josh Brecheen would change parent and caretaker group income requirements from 41 percent of the federal poverty level to 20 percent. Brecheen said all of the more than 106,000 of those adults are able to work.
Sen. John Sparks said while he hadn't heard it from Brecheen, "this idea that there are a bunch of lazy people laying around who don’t want to work hard enough to go get health care seems to permeate some of this conversation."
Brecheen, however, closed debate along those lines.
"It’s the tug of war in our body politic about enabling versus empowering, helping versus harming, supporting when we might be stealing opportunity from someone to get outside of the poverty level," Brecheen said.
Brecheen contended 32 percent of the more than 106,000 adults covered as parents or caretakers are men, and just 3 percent have a disabled child to care for. Brecheen also indicated he thinks the federal definition of disabled is too generous.
"What my mind would go toward is a homebound, on a ventilator, paralyzed," Brecheen said. "I want to make sure everyone understands we’re talking about a population that may have a mental health diagnosis, able to go to school, able to be involved in things. The parent is not fully, day-to-day operational with them 24 hours a day.
Brecheen said the 43,000 adults who would lose coverage under his plan could get health care on a sliding scale.
"This state supplements Federally Qualified Health Centers. And so, moving this population to more of a FQHC model, I think, would be a wise move," Brecheen said.
That may not be an option, though.
"I feel I have to clarify that we actually cut that out as a service," said Senate Appropriations Chair Kim David. "We no longer subsidize federally qualified health care centers."
SB1030 passed committee 18–13, but it may undergo changes before floor votes.
