Program helps Oklahomans with health coverage

The program stems from the Oklahoma Employer and Employee Partnership for Insurance Coverage, or O-EPIC. Due to a lack of publicity since November 2005, however, the program has gone virtually unnoticed.

The Oklahoma Health Care Initiative organized the funding for thousands of Oklahomans to be covered under Insure Oklahoma.

Passage of the bill allowed the increase in the sales tax on tobacco products to be designated for funding the program. Every dollar that is used from the tobacco tax to fund Insure Oklahoma is matched by the federal government.

Everyone in Oklahoma who qualifies for the program should be taking advantage of it.

Insure Oklahoma targets employees who work for companies with 50 or fewer employees. That's unlike last year, when the maximum was 25.

An estimated 18.3 percent of Oklahomans (700,000 people) are without health insurance, which is one of the highest percentages in the nation. The Tulsa area's uninsured number is 13 percent.

Monthly premiums under the plan are on a sliding scale based on annual household income. The plan covers workers 19 to 64 who are not eligible for ESI and do not have Medicare or Medicaid. The state reimburses up to 60 percent of the premium, leaving the employer to pay 25 percent and the employee

Insure Oklahoma also reimburses up to 85 percent on each spouse, which is a great savings considering that most employers do not offer contributions on family coverage. This is a way to offer coverage to spouses as well as employees.

This program gives our state a great opportunity to capture the health care needs of adults and set a national example.

The program is similar to how Medicare assists with the needs of children, with the exception that the program is only partially federally funded. This takes more of the burden off of our government and uses more state resources like the tobacco tax funds.

For small businesses, the No. 1 factor for higher overhead costs is the expense of health insurance for employees. So the program benefits all of us to get more Oklahomans insured. Examples of maximum income allowed under the plan include $33,140 for a family of two, and $47,060 for a family of four.

A specific example provided by O-EPIC demonstrates how a family of four with an annual household income of $47,000 would benefit. With an employer-sponsored insurance premium of $721 per month for employee and spouse, the employer would pay $83, the employee would pay $85, and the Insure Oklahoma program subsidy would be $553.

Business participation in the program starting back in 2005 was around 500 companies, and now we only have a little over 1,500 in the program. There are still thousands of dollars not being used and thousands of people still uninsured.

Many companies are starting to take advantage of Insure Oklahoma.

"I could not have offered insurance to my employees without the help of this program," said Jeff Branstetter of Phillips66. But it "has given us a way to provide better benefits to our employees and their spouses."

This program is going to make a positive difference in the lives of thousands of Oklahomans.

Steve J. Grothjan operates Grothjan Financial Services.

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