Before the current legislative session began, Gov. Brad Henry announced his desire to further develop Insure Oklahoma, a program designed to provide insurance for Oklahomans working for small businesses, allowing more people in the state to be insured.
Henry’s goal is to make insurance available to more Oklahomans, specifically young people, he said in a press release.
“For young people who have less significant health needs, high deductible and tailored benefit plans might be the perfect, low-cost fit,” Henry said. “It’s much better for them and other Oklahomans to have some health coverage rather than none.”
Oklahoma residents between 19 and 64-years-old working for employers with 50 or fewer full-time employees are eligible for the plan, according to the program’s Web site.
The University of Oklahoma Student Health Plan is another health insurance plan available to OU students. It is administered by the Macori Administration and covers select medical care through the Goddard Health Center.
Students with the plan must go to Goddard first for care, said Nick Kelly, OU Human Resources assistant director in an e-mail. Student care, however, is not limited to what is available at Goddard, he said.
OU offers two plans: a basic and a buy-up plan, which Kelly said are priced competitively with other university student health care plans.
The basic plan costs $814 annually and the buy-up plan costs $1,371, Kelly said.
“The plans provide medical benefits such as office visit co-pays, prescription drug co-pays, and major medical coverage at different levels,” Kelly said. “Students, as all consumers do, make a choice based on price, coverage and which doctors and facilities they can use.”
He said about 3,000 students are currently taking advantage of the plan at the Norman campus, and 600 at the OU Health Sciences Center campus.
Kelly said about half of the students on the plan are graduate assistants who receive the full premium of the basic plan, which is paid for by OU, and an additional 800 are international students who are required by OU to be on the plan.
Students who qualify for multiple insurance plans, like the OU plan or Insure Oklahoma, must make health coverage decisions based on which insurance plan is right for them, he said.
“For those students who might qualify for Insure Oklahoma, the comparison [between Insure Oklahoma and the OU Student Health Plan] would have to be made individually based on the student’s finances, health condition, location, family situation and other personal factors,” Kelly said.
Henry said he hopes Oklahomans will become more aware of the health care plans available to them.
“Insure Oklahoma holds great promise for tens of thousands of people, but for whatever reason, they either haven’t heard of it or have been slow to sign up,” Henry said.
To enroll more people in the program, Henry is pushing for on-site enrollment opportunities at medical centers throughout the state. The first of these will be located in Tulsa.
The program is funded by state taxes on tobacco. Oklahoma receives $2 from the federal government for every dollar it raises.
The funds from tobacco taxes allow the state to pay for the majority of the health care premiums of people on the plan. Oklahoma pays 60 percent of the cost of premiums, employers pay 25 percent and the employees covered by Insure Oklahoma pay 15 percent, according to the press release.
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dietfood 2 years, 4 months ago
private health care reform is the best health care. it does not seem to me like the government health plan will work for their citizens. it as way too many red tape www.1wallmart.com>
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