State GOP Puts Business Profits Before People

If some people still think the Oklahoma Republican Party is not owned and managed by big business, they should consider its vote Tuesday to kill legislation that would force insurance companies to cover the treatment of autistic children.

A House committee voted on party lines to kill the measure with Republicans opposing the measure and Democrats favoring it. The GOP controls the House and has a majority of votes on the House Economic and Financial Services Committee. The measure was voted down despite urgent pleas from Oklahoma families with autistic children.

Despite Republican spin, this is a clear GOP vote to protect the profits and interests of health insurance companies over the care of autistic children. It’s a cruel, anti-family vote.

The Oklahoma GOP, which is now the country’s weird museum of dead right-wing ideologies, argued the mandate could increase insurance costs by 7.8 percent, but the Democrats presented evidence that contradicted this claim. Several states require health insurance companies to cover autism treatment. It’s unlikely this one mandate would have any kind of significant impact on health insurance premiums or increasing the number of uninsured.

Even if health insurance companies felt compelled to raise rates significantly because of the autism coverage, then that simply shows us how broken our health care system remains. In other words, some people get their illnesses covered; some people don’t.

The health care system in this country is in a state of crisis. The GOP here can obstruct all they want and put the profits of health insurance companies above people, but reform is coming on a national level.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma Democrats need to keep fighting for the legislation.