Oklahoma House of Representatives
November 5, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: State Rep. M.C. Leist
Capitol: (405) 557-7373
Morris: (918) 733-4102

By MIKE W. RAY
House Media Division Director
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Nearly one of every five Oklahomans receives publicly funded health care benefits, but practically the same number have no health insurance whatsoever, a legislative panel was informed Wednesday.

Medicaid underwrites health-care for almost 649,000 Oklahomans -- approximately 19 percent of the state's population -- a House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee on health and social services was told. More than two-thirds of the Medicaid recipients are low-income children, but other beneficiaries include pregnant women, elderly citizens and disabled persons.

Mike Fogarty, chief executive officer of the state Health Care Authority, noted that the Kaiser Family Foundation reviewed state data and estimated Oklahoma's uninsured population at more than 630,000. Three-quarters of them are adults between the ages of 19 and 64, and children 18 and younger constitute the other 25 percent, the HCA reported.

Many low-income adults have no health insurance because they cannot afford to pay premiums for employer-based coverage, or they work for small businesses that do not offer health-care coverage. People in those circumstances do not qualify for Medicaid, regardless of the level of their assets and incomes.

The Oklahoma Healthcare Initiative the Legislature enacted in 2000 to broaden access to health care in this state merely "made a slight dent" in the segment of the populace most in need of services -- apparently approximately 37.5 percent of this state's residents -- Fogarty told the legislators.

The Health Care Authority advised the Legislature that one of its goals is to expand health-care access to the "underserved and vulnerable populations." The HCA spent about $1.6 billion in Fiscal Year 20003 on Medicaid
programs it administers, ledgers indicate. Although 68 percent of Oklahoma's Medicaid beneficiaries are children, 61 percent of the agency's Medicaid expenditures are earmarked for services provided to the elderly and disabled, who constitute 24
percent of the Medicaid recipients, records reflect. Consequently, a major Medicaid expenditure is prescription drugs: $280 million in FY 2003 and a projected $346 million in FY 2004.

Anne Garcia, the Health Care Authority's chief financial officer, said a 20 percent yearly increase in expenditures for prescriptions is typical. Reasons include growth in the number of people who quality for Medicaid services, rising drug prices, and the number of patients who require multiple prescriptions.

The HCA processed more than 22 million health-care claims in FY 2003 -- an average approaching two million per month, Fogarty pointed out -- and almost 30 million claims in FY 2002, documents show.

Administration of Oklahoma's Medicaid programs in FY 2003 cost slightly less than $74 million. That amounted to just a little more than 3 percent of the total $2.37 billion in state and federal funds spent on Medicaid programs in FY 2003 by the Health Care Authority plus the state Department of Human Services, the state Department of Rehabilitation Services, and the Office of Juvenile Affairs. "We think that's pretty lean," Fogarty said.

The meeting Wednesday was the first step in the House subcommittee's zero-based budget review of the Health Care Authority, said Rep. M.C. Leist, D-Morris, chairman of the panel.

Other legislators attending the meeting were Reps. Bill Nations, D-Norman, vice chairman of the subcommittee; Forrest Claunch, R-Midwest City; Kevin Cox and Al Lindley, both D-Oklahoma City; Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City; Glen Bud Smithson, D-Sallisaw; Dale Turner, D-Holdenville; and John Wright, R-Broken Arrow.
-30-  ¶ 4:38 PM