Has Kim Holland and Kris Steele lost it...

HOLLAND PROPOSES CURBING DRIVER’S LICENSES, FOOTBALL TICKETS OF THOSE WITHOUT HEALTH PLANS
WTF !

Oklahoma must take drastic steps to improve its dismal ranking in the number of residents who have no health insurance, state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said Thursday during her agency’s Summit on the High Cost of Health Insurance.

Barring a law requiring the purchase of health insurance, which Holland concedes would be a political long shot, "inducements” that penalize those who fail to insure themselves would help, she said.

Among the possible inducements Holland proposed was forfeiture of football season tickets to University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State University games, forfeiture of lottery or gaming winnings, loss of state income tax deductions or licenses to drive, hunt or fish.

Holland said policymakers need courage to enact major changes to boost the state’s poor standing for health care coverage of its residents.

State Rep. Kris Steele, co-chair of the House Health Care Reform Task Force, said requiring Oklahomans to purchase health insurance is not a popular stance among lawmakers.

"I believe the place to start is to create a situation within our state that people are without excuse for not having health insurance,” Steele said. "Once we get to the point where people are without excuse, then we create the incentives.”

Those incentives would include rewarding those who obtain insurance and punishing those who don’t, said Steele, R-Shawnee.

"You need the carrot and the stick,” he said.

Holland said the use of inducements, such as revoking in-state tuition discounts for uninsured Oklahomans, would send a message. "We have developed this culture over the years that some don’t feel like they have to pay their medical bills,” she said.

Insure Oklahoma, which uses state and federal money to help small businesses get health insurance for employees, probably is the best vehicle to make health care coverage more accessible, she said.