Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin announced Friday that the federal government is allowing Oklahoma to extend by one year its Insure Oklahoma program that provides health insurance to about 30,000 people, but about 8,000 will lose their eligibility and have to seek coverage on new federal health marketplaces.
The program was due to expire on Jan. 1, when the Affordable Care Act takes full effect, and Oklahoma officials have been pressing the federal government, which has funded a third of Insure Oklahoma, to find ways to preserve the program. Federal officials’ resistance arose in part because Fallin had refused to accept federal money to expand Medicaid to cover the poor, an expansion that would have provided coverage to low-income people eligible for Insure Oklahoma.
Click here to see the full news release on the development. Check Oklahoma Watch’s Twitter feed for details from a news conference held by the governor’s office.
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