Statement for the OCC Press Conference on Healthcare Expansion

The Oklahoma Conference of Churches will hold a press conference at the State Capitol today to encourage Governor Fallin to accept the federal government's medicaid expansion (Obamacare). Here is what I plan to say during the three minutes that have been allotted to me:

I have been to emergency rooms several times in Oklahoma hospitals. Our emergency rooms are clogged with uninsured people with simple headaches, sore throats, ear aches, tooth aches, low grade fevers, rashes, insect bites, and minor scrapes and burns. Many only need over the counter medicines for a common cold or a prescription for the flu. They would be better treated at a doctor’s office or a dentist’s office, but they are underemployed, uninsured and can’t afford one. The only place they are sure to get medical attention -- even for minor ailments -- is at an emergency room.

Meanwhile, care for people with genuine medical emergencies is delayed and their recovery is prolonged and made more difficult.

If the governor and the legislature would accept healthcare expansion, our emergency rooms would not be clogged with people who would be better treated at a doctor’s office or a dentist’s office.

If the governor and the legislature would accept healthcare expansion, public expense for the care of the uninsured would be much more cost effective.

If the governor and the legislature would accept healthcare expansion, emergency room doctors would be able to spend more time treating people with genuine medical emergencies, recovery times would be shorter and outcomes would be better.

If the governor and the legislature would accept healthcare expansion, Oklahomans who have health insurance would no longer be subsidizing expenses for unnecessary emergency room visits by the uninsured.

Accepting healthcare expansion is not only the right thing to do and the moral thing to do, it is also the most cost efficient way to keep Oklahoman’s healthy. And that is without saying anything about the hundreds of millions of dollars that the federal government will send us to help defray the cost of healthcare expansion.

Mainstream Baptists join the Oklahoma Conference of Churches in encouraging Governor Fallin to accept the federal government’s medicaid expansion. We want Obamacare in Oklahoma.