FOR THE CHILDREN / From the desk of Joe Dorman
As families nationwide are facing skyrocketing health care costs, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA), in partnership with Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma (LASO), has just completed a project to help manage those costs.
OICA has distributed more than 100,000 brochures to schools in 20 counties explaining how to enroll in SoonerCare and SoonerSelect, the state’s Medicaid and managed care programs.
“This is an extraordinary partnership that has put critical information into the hands of thousands of parents across the state,” said Joe Dorman, OICA’s CEO. “Legal Aid Services manages the federal grant paying for the program and oversaw the printing and operation of the direct service to those applying; we led the effort of getting the brochures mailed and delivered to the school districts in the counties affected.”
The brochures were sent to every school site in Alfalfa, Blaine, Bryan, Carter, Garfield, Garvin, Grant, Haskell, Hughes, Johnston, Latimer, LeFlore, McIntosh, Muskogee, Okmulgee, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Seminole, Sequoyah, and Wagoner counties. In total, 100,234 brochures were distributed to 393 elementary, middle, and high schools in the counties, enough for every student to take one home.
Dorman noted the distribution was a huge task that involved every member of the OICA staff.
“We are certainly grateful to the school districts for working with us to get the information into the hands of students and their families,” Dorman said. “Our hope is that more Oklahoma children who qualify but are currently uninsured have access to the life-improving health care they need.”
The brochures contain information on enrollment in the insurance programs, what the programs would cover, and the eligibility requirements for SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid). The brochures also have the myOKplan.org website and the 833-465-7526 phone number for parents to call for more information on the plan.
In addition, OICA has emailed the digital version to all Oklahoma school superintendents for them to share and placed the brochure on its website for anyone to examine and download. The OICA website is https://www.oica.org. If a school district would like to receive some of the remaining brochures for their students, or if a youth program would like to distribute to their membership, please send the name, mailing address and number of students to [email protected].
“Information is power — especially for parents and especially in the field of health care,” Dorman concluded. “It is part of our mission to ensure policy supports Oklahoma’s children and, in our state, Sooner-Care is a critical policy that can lead to healthier futures for the state’s children.”
