New Report Says Lack Of Medicaid Expansion In Okla. Caused Hundreds Of Deaths

A report from a progressive think tank out of Washington claims the state's failure to expand Medicaid lead to the death of hundreds of Oklahomans. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, nearly 500 older Oklahomans died because the state

Monday, November 25th 2019, 8:54 am

By: News 9

New Report Says Lack Of Medicaid Expansion In Okla. Caused Hundreds Of Deaths

A report from a progressive think tank out of Washington claims the state's failure to expand Medicaid lead to the death of hundreds of Oklahomans.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, nearly 500 older Oklahomans died because the state did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The report also points out that states that did expand Medicaid avoided more than 19,000 pre-mature deaths nationwide.

In Oklahoma, Republican lawmakers are dismissing the report. Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat is calling the possible connection in the report irresponsible saying in part quote, "Both sides of the debate on whether to expand Medicaid are legitimate, but this kind of inflammatory rhetoric, denigrates our discourse by distracting us from working together to resolve the issue."

This all comes on the heels of the YES to 802 campaign in Oklahoma. That group collected signatures to put the medicaid expansion issue to a statewide vote on next years ballot.

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