The federal government will let the state operate its Insure Oklahoma health care plan for another year, keeping alive a program that provides coverage to about 19,000 of the state's working poor and their families.
Gov. Mary Fallin announced Monday that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services extended the program through Dec. 31, 2015. It was set to expire at the end of the year.
Insure Oklahoma provides coverage to about 19,000 Oklahoma residents through both individual and employer-sponsored plans. Federal officials expected many of the recipients to be eligible for Medicaid expansion if they earned up to 138 percent of federal poverty, or about $32,499 for a family of four.
But Fallin rejected the Medicaid expansion, claiming it would eventually cost the state too much money.
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