Episode 34: No job? No doctor. (with Carly Putnam & Hannah Katch)

This year, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and the state Legislature ordered the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which runs Medicaid in Oklahoma, to come up with a plan to require Oklahoma adults on Medicaid to work at least 20 hours each week. If they don’t meet this requirement, or if they don’t do the paperwork to report their work or get an exemption in time, they will lose their Medicaid coverage and become uninsured. OK Policy’s Carly Putnam has been doing a lot of work on this issue, and for this episode, I spoke with Carly and Hannah Katch of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, who’s been looking at this from a national perspective since the idea has been pushed in multiple states. Right now public comments are being submitted about Oklahoma’s plan, and after the interview we read several of the comments that have been sent in so far. These do a great job of showing how real people’s lives would be affected if this is implemented. The comments are illuminating, and often heartbreaking. After listening, you can learn more and take action by going to https://okpolicy.org/stop-attacks-soonercare/. The OK PolicyCast is hosted by Gene Perry with production help from Jessica Vazquez. You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, or RSS. The podcast theme music is by Zébre. If you have any questions for the OK PolicyCast, topics you’d like us to cover, or people you want us to interview, you can reach us at [email protected].