Name: A SoonerCare success story - Oklahoma Policy Institute
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A SoonerCare success story - Oklahoma Policy Institute

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As the nation’s , Medicaid is always an important governmental investment. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to , , Medicaid is more important now than ever in providing critical coverage to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to see a doctor or fill a prescription. As Oklahoma moves to implement Medicaid expansion in July 2021, some 200,000 newly eligible Oklahomans will gain access to affordable health care, and the state will see . Medicaid provides a pathway to coverage for nearly , and the state and federal governments must protect this access to care.&nbsp;Medicaid was designed to provide support, particularly in a time such as this. Enrollment in Oklahoma’s Medicaid program, or SoonerCare, increased between February and December 2020. This is in part because states are prohibited from terminating coverage while accepting extra pandemic-related federal funding (discussed in detail below). The also has driven enrollment due to significant . As more Oklahomans rely on Medicaid to see a doctor, SoonerCare is fulfilling its purpose: providing people with affordable health coverage in times of need.Even so, many Oklahomans remain uninsured. Before the pandemic, nearly of all Oklahomans were uninsured, and the rate was significantly higher in many communities of color due to entrenched and systematic inequities. The state’s high uninsurance rate has undoubtedly played a role in Oklahoma’s , as recent research has found a . In Oklahoma at the time of the study, some , or almost half, of all COVID-19 deaths were linked to being uninsured. Medicaid expansion will be a good first step towards mitigating these large gaps, but the state must commit to prioritizing the health of all Oklahomans by providing accessible paths to affordable coverage.&nbsp;&nbsp;The federal government has committed to supporting states in their efforts to provide coverage for many who would be otherwise uninsured, by helping states fund their Medicaid programs through the (FMAP) program. Since 2011, Oklahoma’s FMAP rate has stayed , with the federal government paying about 60 percent of the state’s Medicaid costs, or roughly two dollars for every dollar the state spends on Medicaid. However, the , passed by Congress in March 2020, provides a in federal Medicaid matching funds for the duration of the public health emergency. Because of this increased funding, Oklahoma is estimated to receive an additional for Medicaid expenses between January 2020 and December 2021.On top of this, Oklahoma will get even more assistance in the near future. The American Rescue Plan (ARP), a new federal COVID-19 economic relief bill will provide an in the base federal match for non-expansion individuals for states that have not yet implemented Medicaid expansion. This change will not impact the 9:1 federal match paid by the federal government specifically for Medicaid expansion, providing a unique opportunity for Oklahoma to expand coverage without a significant impact on the state budget. Now that this bill has been signed into law, Oklahoma could receive an additional $860 million between July 2021 and July 2023.&nbsp;Together, these federal initiatives are expected to return an additional $1.8 billion to the state of Oklahoma for Medicaid-related expenses between January 2020 and July 2023. This influx of dollars is more than enough to cover the estimated annual cost of Medicaid expansion, between and . And as federal funding returns to normal levels in the next few years, Medicaid expansion will still generate , providing an opportunity to not only maintain health care spending, but to reinvest savings into improving health care for all Oklahomans in the future.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;SoonerCare must be fully funded and accessible so that everyone has access to comprehensive, affordable health care. To ensure that all Oklahomans can continue seeing their physicians, Oklahoma leaders must do their part. Legislators and other state leaders should ensure that Medicaid expansion is and accessible to all Oklahomans who qualify.&nbsp;This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. .

As the nation’s , Medicaid is always an important governmental investment. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to , , Medicaid is more important now than ever in providing critical coverage to people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to see a doctor or fill a prescription. As Oklahoma moves to implement Medicaid expansion in July 2021, some 200,000 newly eligible Oklahomans will gain access to affordable health care, and the state will see . Medicaid provides a pathway to coverage for nearly , and the state and federal governments must protect this access to care.&nbsp;Medicaid was...

A SoonerCare success story - Oklahoma Policy Institute

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