Horn town hall covers coronavirus, health insurance

Mar. 8--The spread of the new coronavirus has raised the issue of access to health insurance, U.S. Rep. Kendra Horn said Saturday, while local health department officials emphasized the need for all people to do their part.

"You may be feeling anxious about it but ... it is a virus similar to the flu," Eddie Withers, epidemiologist for the OKC-County Health Department, said at a public meeting organized by Horn.

"This is nothing we haven't seen before and, honestly, it won't be the last time we probably see something like this. It's important to do the steps that you can do, the preventive measures that you can control, and that's the way to get through it."

Oklahoma officials on Friday announced that the first confirmed state case of the coronavirus was contracted by a Tulsa County man, who returned to Oklahoma last month from Italy where COVID-19 has been widespread.

Withers said most of the U.S. cases had been related to foreign travel but that would change as more residents spread the virus in their own communities.

Horn, D-Oklahoma City, held her latest town hall meeting at the local health department and shared time with leaders of that agency and Yuliana Reyes, director of health programs at the Latino Community Development Agency, and Natalie Bayne, with Diabetes Solutions of Oklahoma.

Horn used part of the two-hour program to argue for protecting the Affordable Care Act and expanding Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for low-income people.

The Affordable Care Act is again before the U.S. Supreme Court in a case that could be decided this summer. Horn said the act's survival is "a matter of life and death" for people who don't have other access to health insurance.

Horn said the expansion of Medicaid through the state question is superior to the approach being taken by Gov. Kevin Stitt because Stitt's plan would provide less funding and result in smaller payments to doctors and hospitals.

A Stitt spokeswoman did not respond earlier in the week to a request for comment about Horn's criticism of the governor's Medicaid plan.

Horn said it wasn't necessary to get rid of private insurance companies, as some Democratic candidates have proposed, but that coverage for everyone was critical.

"We're only as healthy and safe as the access to care for everyone in our communities because of things like COVID-19 and so many other diseases -- they don't ask you who you are or where you live or what your political belief is," she said.

Horn is expected to have a tough re-election battle this fall with the Republican who emerges from a crowded GOP field that has been uniformly loyal to President Donald Trump. Health care is likely to be a major issue. The Republican president pushed Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act enacted during his predecessor's term and his administration has been fighting against it in federal court.

Horn said Congress and the administration worked together last week to approve $8.3 billion to tackle the coronavirus. A good portion of the money will go to local health departments, she said.

Withers, the epidemiologist, said the city-county health department has been in contact with a wide range of agencies and physicians to ensure coordination.

"We're talking to everyone because it's a concerted effort," he said. "Obviously we're in direct communication with doctors and area hospitals because as this progresses and we are no longer able to track it through travel, it's going to be one of those things where doctors' offices and (emergency rooms) might see it before" government officials.

Withers said the state could begin to see instances of people being isolated in hospitals and self-quarantined at home.

Oklahoma City resident Clarence Beatty, who attended the meeting, said afterward that he wasn't concerned at this point about the coronavirus and hadn't changed his own routine.

"It doesn't seem to be very prevalent," Beatty said, adding that it's "not the death sentence."

Withers said the death rate internationally has been over 3%, with most deaths occurring in older people and in people of all ages who have underlying diseases.

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