Earthquakes in Oklahoma?

You've got to be kidding me. Who ever heard of earthquakes in Oklahoma, of all places.

To paraphrase a song from The Music Man: "I say there's trouble right here in Oklahoma. Trouble with a capital T. That rhymes with E and that stands for earthquakes." "T" of course, is for tornadoes, that windy spectacle of Mother Nature's glory. Folks here in the Red Man state expect a bustling tornado season each year and many have taken precautions for safety from the twisters.

Earthquakes, now -- that's another story. It seems the state has something like an average of 50 earthquakes a year, but they've generally been small by quake standards and only noticed by people near the epicenters. The weekend of November 5th and 6th changed all that with a introductory tremblor of 4.7 magnitude in the wee hours of Saturday night and then the "big one," a 5.6 quake late Saturday night. Ten or more aftershocks were felt throughout Sunday.

The bigger earthquake established a record here in the state, and wasn't far behind the magnitude of the August 2011 quake on the East Coast that produced cracks in the Washington Monument.

Fortunately, there was only one reported injury in connection with the quakes, and sadly, that was of a man who was scrambling to get outside his house and tripped and hit the wall.

Minor damage has been reported to some homes and buildings and Highway 62 buckled in three places. It turns out a conventional home owners insurance policy doesn't cover earthquake damage. A separate earthquake policy or addendum is required, as with flood insurance. Tulsa area insurance companies reported they were inundated with earthquake insurance calls. I can only begin to guess the price on it after these sizable quakes.

Seismologists have no explanation as to why these quakes occurred, so it would seem they won't be able to predict future tremblors with accuracy either. Common sense dictates that Oklahomans become familiar with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Disaster Preparedness for Earthquakes.

Praise for Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn

Senator Tom Coburn, who represents Oklahoma in the national senate, did something that surprised not only his constituents and political backers, but apparently the nation as a whole: He told people attending a town hall meeting in his home state that although he disagreed with her politics, he would not stand for people calling Nancy Pelosi anything but a nice person outside the political arena.

Despite negative feedback from his town hall audience, Sen. Coburn stuck by his statement about House Speaker Pelosi.

Coburn's surprise statements didn't end with his defense of a political adversary as a decent human being. When members of the town hall meeting audience began making statements about the recent health care reform bill that were untrue--such as fearing going to jail for not having health insurance--this man told his listeners not to get all their news from Fox, that it was no one's intention for people to go to jail over the health insurance issue.

He advised his listeners to get their information from more than one source to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.

This right-wing politician who has been nicknamed "Dr. No" for his frequent blocking of bills he opposes took a courageous and admirable stand in that town hall meeting. It is refreshing to see that this representative of the people is not a cardboard cutout with no regard for decency--as so many in the political and media arenas are these days. He has earned my respect.

Further reading: The Wall Street Journal

Medical Records and Privacy

The Oklahoma legislature is considering a bill that would limit autopsy results "and many other pieces of information" from becoming public record. This bill is being pushed by the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation, claiming the release of the information covered in the bill hampers some criminal investigations.

This bill moved swiftly through the Oklahoma house and was successfully passed. It awaits only the senate's approval for the bill to become law. As of this date, however, the bill has been removed from the senate's list of considerations.

I am pleased that this bill will probably not receive a senate vote during this legislature session. While I am concerned with the "many other pieces of information" that the bill might withhold from the public, I fervently believe that autopsy results should not fall under the Oklahoma Open Records Act.

Autopsy results are, after all, a person's final medical records. As such, I believe that privacy is assured to all individuals. If the autopsy reveals a crime involved with the person's death, those results will become a matter of public record through court transcripts. I can't think of any other cases where the public has a need to know why an individual died.

Those who need to know autopsy results for closure to their grief will already be in the "loop;" they will receive the information from the medical examiner's office.

It is my hope that I will pass away at a ripe old age from natural causes and no autopsy will be warranted, but if circumstances dictate otherwise, I want the information from this medical examination of my body and fluids to be known only to those who cared for me while I lived.
 

More to the Story on Oklahoma Health Insurance

After writing here about my concern in regards to the statements attributed to Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland and Representative Steele, I had sent an email with those concerns to the insurance commissioner. In today's email I received a thorough and courteous response from Ms. Holland, which I am pasting here.

There's always more than one side to every story, and in this instance, as undoubtedly happens more often than we know, the reporting media took a very small portion of a day-long conference and reported it out of context. Here's Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland's email response:

"Thank you for taking the time to write. As so often happens with media, the story told is not the whole story or even the story. I cannot and would not punish anyone who can't afford health insurance. Allow me this opportunity to clarify what actually took place.

Over the past three years, I have led a public effort involving hundreds of Oklahomans from all four corners of the state and all walks of life to develop a road map that ensures all Oklahomans have access to high quality health care and affordable health insurance. We are very close to having a workable plan for our legislature’s deliberation and, hopefully, enactment. November 20th’s Summit on the High Cost of Health Insurance (the fourth) continued a serious and deliberative discussion as to what must be done to reduce the cost of insurance. Our focus was on improving the quality of health care delivered to our citizens through greater access to primary and preventive care. This can best be accomplished through affordable insurance options that provide low cost access to physicians, prescriptions and necessary associated medical services.

We are in the process of developing such options and conceiving a plan to provide adequate assistance to individuals (dependent upon income) who do not have employer subsidized coverage. Once in place, our challenge becomes how to encourage enrollment.

I would like to believe that those currently uninsured (about 17% of our population, mostly working aged adults) would buy coverage if is affordable. Unfortunately, experience tells us that some individuals simply will not prioritize purchasing health insurance – particularly if they believe they can get “free care” through an emergency room. In reality, that expensive free care is passed on to those who have insurance. If you are one of those, your health insurance premiums are significantly inflated to cover the costs of those who receive medical care and do not or cannot pay their bill. Almost $1 billion dollars in unpaid medical expenses is passed on to insured Oklahomans each and every year.

For a very few minutes out of a thoughtful day-long meeting, we lightheartedly discussed potential consequences for not purchasing insurance. These ideas were not in the form of any kind of proposal or urging, but rather intended to provoke discussion about the need to compel people (particularly the 19 – 32-year-olds who make up a large portion of our uninsured) to obtain insurance – again once affordable options are available.

I care very deeply about our citizens’ ability to get the medical care they need when they need it in the appropriate setting. I have made this the primary goal of my service to our citizens and will continue to do so as long as I have the opportunity. I welcome your suggestions and comments and, again, appreciate hearing from you. Kim Holland"

Oklahoma Legislator and Insurance Commissioner Band Together to Advocate "Punishment" for Those Without Health Insurance

Anyone who lives in Oklahoma would be hard-pressed to find a topic of more debate than the one about the potential for punishing Oklahomans who do not have health care coverage. Both Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland and State Representative Kris Steele advocated just such punishments as reported in the November 21, 2008 "The Oklahoman." (Click on blog title to access article.)

While it matters little what punishments are being considered, such "inducements" as Commissioner Holland calls them, are the typical example of putting the proverbial cart before the horse. Rather than first addressing the problem of making health care affordable to the residents of the state, immediately these two people who are in a position to at least begin such dialogue prefer to threaten people with loss of services/funds.

Commissioner Holland stated, "We have developed this culture over the years that some don't feel like they have to pay their medical bills." In truth, what we have are many residents who are unable to pay their medical bills, many of whom go without needed medical care for that very reason. It is a burden for any parent that is unable to provide health care coverage for their children because of an inability to afford such coverage--a burden to the parents' heart because their children don't get all the medical care they may need.

Representative Steele stated, "You need the carrot and the stick," referring to punishing those who don't have insurance and rewarding those who do. Since when do we want the government considering us jackasses, and treating us the same?

To give credit where it is due, Rep. Steele also stated that the place to start is to make health care affordable to state residents, then to look to create incentives.

I disagree that people need any incentive to have health care coverage other than the ability to maintain their health and to be able to obtain medical services when needed.