Posts Tagged ‘Oklahoma’

Oklahoma Considers Raising the Legal SMOKING Age

February 17th, 2012 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in health insurance

A committee of the Oklahoma House of Representatives has recently approved legislation that would raise the legal age for the use of tobacco to twenty-one. While the drinking age has been twenty-one across the country for several decades now, in most places the age limit for tobacco use is still eighteen.

While it’s no secret that smoking leads to a host of health problems, and causes you to pay more for health insurance, legislating a higher minimum age isn’t something most places consider. So, what’s the reasoning in Oklahoma? According to state Representative Ann Coody (R – Lawton), it’s about breaking the cycle of addiction.

“The younger someone starts smoking,” Coody said, “the harder it is to break the addiction later in life.” She continued, “By raising the age restriction on tobacco purchases, we can deter many young people from ever starting this bad habit and save them years of health complications.”

Under the terms of Coody’s bill, HB 2314, the legal age to purchase tobacco would increase gradually from the current age of 18 to 21 by the year 2015.

With over 6,000 lives lost to it each year, tobacco use is the state of Oklahoma’s leading cause of preventable death.

Coody emphasizes, “While tobacco was once seen as a harmless vice, that is clearly not the case. If we can discourage young people from smoking, it will benefit that young person’s health and ultimately benefit our state economy through greater productivity and lower health expenses.”

The bill passed out of the Oklahoma House of Representatives Public Health Committee yesterday. It now goes to the House floor for debate.

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Oklahoma Governor Seeks Disaster Aid Because of Quakes

December 1st, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in earthquake insurance

The state of Oklahoma felt at least five small earthquakes over last week’s Thanksgiving holiday. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there was a 2.4 magnitude quake at 6:55 AM on Saturday, November 26th, with an epicent4er about five miles south of Sparks. This was the fifth temblor in the area since Thursday the 24th, when a 3.7 magnitude shaker was recorded near Prague. There were three more tremors between those.

Earlier in November, a 5.6 magnitude quake – the strongest Oklahoma has ever recorded – struck the state, causing damage to at least 40 houses and a highway, and collapsing a tower at Shawnee, OK’s St. Gregory’s University.

In the wake of these earthquakes, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has requested a federal disaster be declared. Her request was made on November 22nd, and is meant to get help for people and businesses in Lincoln and Pottawatomie counties, where the tremors have been centered. Nearly 200 homes and businesses have been damaged in those counties, according to early estimates.

If the governor’s request is approved, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management agency) will provide grants and low-interest loans to home- and business owners and renters.

Insurance companies around the state are also rallying, redefining their coverage in Oklahoma.

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Oklahoma at Extreme Risk for Wildfires

August 3rd, 2011 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in fire insurance

Oklahomans had better update their fire insurance policies, if the news from state forester George Geissler is accurate. He says that the heat and drought currently holding the state hostage could create a wildfire crises there for the rest of the summer. He added that both the western rangeland and eastern wooded hills are dangerously dry, and that a significant amount of rain is needed to break the drought.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the eastern third of Oklahoma is in a “severe” drought, except for regions far to the northeast and southeast, where the rating of the drought is merely “moderate,” but central Oklahoma’s drought is considered “extreme,” and western Oklahoma has a drought rating of exceptional, as in “exceptionally bad.”

Unfortunately, there is no rain likely to fall on the parched state. Rick Smith, a National Weather Service meteorologist said, “We’re not seeing any hopeful signs for relief anywhere in the near future.”

Geissler elaborated on the situation, explaining that over 150,000 acres of Oklahoma have already been burned by wildfires this year, and that the state is now at moisture levels that are so low that they’ve reached, “…that critical tipping point when a small spark can start a fire.”

While Oklahoma summers aren’t usually terribly windy, a normal 10-15 mph south wind could cause a fire to burn with a lot of intensity, Geissler explained. He added that firefighters across the state are prepared for the worst possible conditions, and said that the state forestry service has planes that can drop water, as well as helicopters that the Oklahoma National Guard will make available, if needed.

The state also has federal forest service aid available. A plane from Abilene, TX recently flew to the Wichita Mountains in just over half an hour to help with firefighting efforts there, Geissler said.

He added, however, that the public needs to be incredibly cautious in order to prevent fires, emphasizing, “As long as people keep in mind that if they do anything that involves a spark — grilling to cook, mowing and hitting a rock, whatever it is — they should be very cautious of their surroundings.”

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Oklahoma Representative Pushes for Workers’ Comp Reform

December 27th, 2010 by Iris | 1 Comment | Filed in insurance news, insurance specialists, workers compensation insurance

Oklahoma state representative, Mark McCullough told the press last week that he was prepared to introduce legislation designed to improve his state’s workers’ compensation system. Representative McCullough also said that the legislation will be based on recent recommendations from The Task Force on Vocational Rehabilitation in Workers’ Compensation, including reforms that would return employees to work whenever possible, as a way to both control costs and reduce litigation.

In addition, the group recommended that vocational rehabilitation should begin much earlier than is currently required, and that medical guidelines that are evidence-based should be implemented in order to identify and confirm workplace injuries.

McCullough, an attorney, served as chair of the task force, which put the workers’ compensation system and the issue of vocational rehabilitation under review. In their report, the task force observed, “Vocational rehabilitation through our system is utilized infrequently, rarely successfully places an injured worker in a difference occupation, is not attractive to the injured worker for a variety of reasons, occurs much too late in the case timeline and is perhaps cynically used to settle a claim for a higher dollar amount with no real belief by either part that the funds will actually be used for the purposes of vocational rehabilitation.”

McCullough said that his legislation would include reforms to begin vocational rehabilitation before Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) in some cases, and may involve having a physician’s advisory council draft at set of fact-specific injuries to serve as a “trigger” for cases where earlier vocational rehabilitation may be advisable.

In addition, the legislation will also contain provisions from a bill McCullough originally filed last year. That bill, which was a product of a working group sponsored by The State Chamber, would turn Oklahoma’s Workers’ Compensation system into an administrative system, which all states except Oklahoma and Nebraska have already embraced.

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Earthquake Rattles Oklahoma

October 14th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in earthquake insurance, homeowners insurance

You probably wouldn’t think to buy earthquake insurance if you lived in Oklahoma, but perhaps wherever you are, you should think again.

According to local NPR station KGOU a quake at 9:06 CDT on Wednesday morning was one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Oklahoma, left two people with injuries (minor ones), and was felt in parts of five other states, including Texas.

The United States Geological Survey rated the temblor at a magnitude of 4.3 and said the epicenter was about six miles northeast of Norman, OK.

Oklahoma has only recorded three stronger earthquakes since becoming a state one hundred and three years ago. The sharpest ever was a 5.0 shaker that struck El Reno, a town just west of Oklahoma City, in 1952.

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No State Fee on Oklahoma Medicaid Claims

August 26th, 2010 by Iris | Comments Off | Filed in insurance news

The Insurance Journal is reporting today that a state law meant to raise revenue for Oklahoma’s Medicaid program has been overturned.

In a ruling which was posted on the state Supreme Court’s website, it was said that the law, which set a 1 percent fee on claims paid by private health insurers and companies with self-insured health plans, was in violation of the state’s Constitution. The request to overturn the law came from State Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland.

Michael Ridgeway, an attorney for the Insurance Department, argued that the bill never received the necessary three-fourths vote when it passed the House and Senate votes.

Holland’s efforts were supported by the Independent Insurance Agents of Oklahoma, which commended the Supreme Court for its ruling, with the group’s president and CEO Dan Ramsey stating in a press release, “Commissioner Holland was correct in filing this lawsuit to protect Oklahoma policyholders from seeing health insurance premiums increase by an estimated $78 million annually as a result of this legislation and we appreciate her efforts to take this aggressive position.”

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