Insure Oklahoma Now Accepting Larger Businesses

Insure Oklahoma Now Accepting Larger Businesses

State's Health Underwriters Lobbied for the Program to be Expanded

OKLAHOMA CITY - Governor Mary Fallin and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) announced today that the Insure Oklahoma program is increasing its employer size limit from 99 to 250 employees. The change is effective immediately.

Insure Oklahoma is the state's premium assistance program that helps businesses and their middle- to low-income employees afford health insurance coverage. Insure Oklahoma's funding levels can support premium assistance for about 30,000 individuals. Increasing the employer size limit to 250 employees, which is authorized under the program's federal waiver, would allow Insure Oklahoma to maximize program usage.

Governor Mary Fallin said increasing the eligibility limit to 250 employees is part of the state's efforts to be more business-friendly, improve health outcomes and responsibly expand access to health care.

"Raising the eligibility cap allows the state to partner with more businesses to provide affordable health insurance to their employees," said Fallin. "The money that Insure Oklahoma saves employers can be reinvested in more jobs and other employee benefits."

OHCA Chief Executive Officer Nico Gomez said the Insure Oklahoma program has the capacity and funding in place to serve more businesses.

"Insure Oklahoma has the capacity to serve more businesses and thousands more working Oklahomans," said Gomez. "We are ready to accept applications from newly-qualified businesses and employees and look forward to serving them."

The Oklahoma State Association of Health Underwriters (OSAHU) met with the Oklahoma Health Care Authority in August to ask that the program be expanded. The state's underwriters are the principal marketers of the plan through individual coverage and group medical plans offered through employers.

Current OSAHU President Wayne Pettigrew was an original author of the bill that requested the federal waiver to create the Insure Oklahoma program when he served in the state legislature.

"To see this program expanded to cover employers of up to 250 employees was the original intent of the legislature at the time we passed the enabling legislation", Pettigrew said.

"With the ACA and its impact on small to mid-size employers we have needed the availability of a small employer offset to help employers with working employees and their dependents afford the new mandates. This is happening at a crucial time", Pettigrew added.

Insure Oklahoma launched in 2005 with an initial employer size limit of 25 employees. This is the third time the size limit has been increased.

Insure Oklahoma currently has both employer-based and individual health insurance options. The employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) option of Insure Oklahoma pays at least 60 percent of the premiums for private market health insurance policies. Participating employers pay at least 25 percent of the qualified employee's monthly premiums, and the employee pays no more than 15 percent of their health premium. The program also assists with premiums for the employee's spouse and children.

Insure Oklahoma's Individual Plan (IP) is for working Oklahomans who do not have access to group coverage and earn less than the federal poverty level, as well as those who are temporarily unemployed and seeking work.

The program currently serves 17,098 Oklahomans with more than 3,500 businesses participating. Insure Oklahoma is funded by the state tobacco tax matched by federal Medicaid dollars. Funding is secured through 2016, while state leaders continue to discuss a long-term funding agreement.

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) administers Oklahoma's Medicaid program, known as SoonerCare, and Insure Oklahoma, a premium assistance program funded by tobacco tax revenue. SoonerCare works to improve the health outcomes of Oklahomans by ensuring that medically necessary benefits and services are responsive to the health care needs of our members. Qualifying Oklahomans include low-income children, pregnant women, seniors, the disabled, those being treated for breast or cervical cancer and those seeking family planning services. All must meet income guidelines. Insure Oklahoma assists qualifying adults and small business employees in obtaining health care coverage for themselves and their families. OHCA works with our current 829,561 members, our statewide network of 43,652 health care providers and numerous state and local partners to promote responsible health care service utilization, healthy behaviors and improved health outcomes. For more information, visit http://www.okhca.org/ www.okhca.org orhttp://www.insureoklahoma.org/ www.insureoklahoma.org.