There are a tremendous amount of State sponsored and charitable resources available to individuals and families whose incomes are insufficient to provide all the necessary medical care they may need.   We are not associated with any of these agencies and organizations, but are happy to provide this information as an additional resource to help Oklahoma individuals and families get the best care they possibly can, regardless of income.

To find a comprehensive listing of agencies, organizations, and categories of assistance available in your area, please click on the link below:

JOIN (Joint Oklahoma Information Network)

Select the Community Resources Directory button, enter the city or county in which you reside, click next, then select a topic such as health care.  Another list of services will appear which you can again select to get a listing of all agencies and organizations in your area.

SoonerCare, Oklahoma's Medicaid program, provides health care to children under the age of 19, adults with children under the age of 18, pregnant women and people who are older than 65 or have blindness or another disability.

OHCA (Oklahoma Health Care Authority)

OKDHS (Oklahoma Department of Human Services)

Insure Oklahoma clarified

7/8/2009 -- The Tulsa World ----

Exerpts from article:

The Insure Oklahoma program is designed to help small businesses provide health insurance to their lower-income employees. These employees are the ones who most likely are uninsured as they cannot afford health insurance premiums. The program is available to employees and spouses with low to moderate household incomes. A family of four can have a household income of a little more than $44,000 to qualify.

It helps pay the premiums for private market health insurance policies using funds from the state's tobacco tax matched with federal funds. Currently, there are 20 insurance carriers providing more than 450 choices of health plans from which small business owners can choose. Some of the larger carriers include Aetna Health, Inc., BlueCross BlueShield, CommunityCare and PacifiCare. The diversity allows owners to select coverage that best meets their needs and the market determines product offerings.

Through Insure Oklahoma, the employer pays 25 percent of the premiums for qualifying employees. The employee pays up to 15 percent and state and federal dollars supplement the balance. There are currently 4,752 businesses enrolled.

The Insure Oklahoma program does appear to be working as it was designed. Insuring more people and helping more people in our state keep their health insurance was never an "unanticipated consequence" of this program, it was and will continue to be our mission.

Dr. Lynn Mitchell, Oklahoma City

Editor's note: Mitchell is the state Medicaid director for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority

1. Insure Oklahoma/O-EPIC ESI, Employer Sponsored Insurance, designed to assist small business owners in providing their employees and their employees’ families with health insurance, and

2. Insure Oklahoma/O-EPIC IP, Individual Plan, designed to assist sole proprietors (self employed), certain unemployed individuals, and working individuals who do not have access to small group health coverage.