Health Care Policy

On this edition of ST, we're talking about State Question 802, the Medicaid expansion initiative that Oklahoma voters will cast ballots for or against on Tuesday of next week. This measure, per ballotpedia.org, would "expand Medicaid in Oklahoma under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. It would provide Medicaid coverage for certain low-income adults between 18 and 65 with incomes at or below 133% of the federal poverty level (FPL).

On this edition of ST, we get to know Ahniwake Rose, the incoming executive director of the nonprofit, non-partisan Oklahoma Policy Institute (a/k/a OK Policy). Rose, originally from Oklahoma, has spent nearly 20 years working at the intersection of public policy and nonprofit management. Previously, she was the Deputy Director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), a national organization serving the interests of tribal governments and communities.

Our guest on ST Medical Monday is Lori Melichar, a labor economist with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Per the RWJF website, Lori is "a senior director [who] focuses on discovering, exploring, and learning from cutting-edge ideas with the potential to help create a Culture of Health. She is also the host of the Foundation's Pioneering Ideas podcast.