November 26, 2019 Issue, Page 4 of 14

Page Text

Page 4 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Tuesday, November 26, 2019 Opinion Page Direct democracy efforts evident in Oklahoma “ElkCituNews The Oklahoman, Okla- homa City and prefer to “decide the is- sue for themselves.” We've seen this before, Two years earlier, seven state questions were on the Last week came news of another petition drive, in- Serving Western Oklahoma since 1901 Oklahoma's longstanding November ballot. They in- volving criminal justice re- embrace of direct democ- many times. In the past 30 cluded initiative-driven pro- form. Impasse over racy is evident again in the growing list of state ques- years, 81 initiative petition drives have been started and posals to increase the state sales tax to benefit public ed- The group Oklahomans for Sentencing Reform proposes ucation (it was defeated) and Oklahoma gaming tions seeking to find their 17 have reached the ballot. a constitutional amendment way to the ballot in 2020. The remainder either didn’t to reclassify some crimes as to end the use of sentence Backers of an_ initia- survive court challenges, misdemeanors instead of fel- compacts widens tive petition drive for State Question 802, which if ap- didn’t get enough signatures or were abandoned. onies (it was approved). If it is placed on the bal- enhancements for those con- victed of nonviolent crimes. The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City proved by voters would ex- In the primary election in lot next year, State Question Presently, the group says, If the latest rhetoric is any indication, then it’s clear the pand Medicaid to roughly June of last year, voters ap- 802 may have company. people accused of crimes in dispute between the governor and Oklahoma’s Indian tribes 200,000 Oklahomans, col- proved a petition-led state A group called People Not Oklahoma can have years over gaming compacts is a long way from being settled. lected 313,677 signatures. question to legalize medi- Politicians has filed an ini- stacked onto their prison Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is seeking to renegotiate the state’s That total -- far more than cal marijuana in Oklahoma. tiative petition asking vot- sentence if they have ever compacts with the tribes, on Thursday proposed gaming the 178,000 signatures need- Turnout was more than dou- ers to back the creation of been convicted of a crime. fees as high as 25%. Under the current compacts, the top ed --was the largest for any ble the total of the 2014 pri- a commission to handle the Under this change, people rate that tribes pay is 10%. initiative petition in state mary, and the state question redistricting of Oklahoma’s could still get the maximum “This affects education. This affects mental health. This history. passed easily. legislative and congressio- sentence for a crime, but affects roads and bridges,” Stitt said Thursday in arguing SQ 802 would amend the The November 2018 bal- nal districts. That job now for a significant rate increase. Referencing a state that pays wouldn’t receive a longer state constitution by expand- lot included five state ques- belongs to the Legislature, some revenue-sharing fees as high as 25%, he added, “I sentence beyond the maxi- ing Medicaid to cover adults tions, four of which had which is controlled by Re- don’t think there’s any difference when we pull a slot ma- mum for past convictions. younger than 65 whose in- been sent to the ballot by the publicans. People Not Poli- chine in Oklahoma or you pull a slot machine in Connecti- come doesn’t exceed 133% Legislature and one by peti- ticians wants to turn redis- State questions allow cut that we should be that different in our exclusivity fees.” of the federal poverty level. tion drive. The latter sought tricting over to a nine-person Oklahoma voters to di- This tussle began during the summer when Stitt an- The head of the Yes on 802 to place optometry shops group of nonelected officials rectly determine policy. nounced he wanted to renegotiate the compacts, which dic- campaign says voters “sim- in big-box stores, and was from different political par- They could have three more tate the types of games tribes can offer and the state’s share ply don’t trust politicians among four questions that ties, in an attempt to make chances -- at least -- to do so of the revenue. Stitt also contends the compacts, which date to actually fix the problem” were defeated. the process apolitical. in 2020. to 2004, expire at year’s end. The tribes say the compacts renew automatically on Jan. 1 if new terms are not agreed upon, and have said the pres- Preparing for the 2020 Census Highway Construction Planning and $38.5 ent arrangements are fair to all parties. The day before Stitt’s news conference, Stephen By Oklahoma Institute third of Oklahoma’s popula- online. Of concern, however, Federal Pell Grant Pro- for Child Advocacy CEO tion lives in “hard-to-count are the estimated 23 percent gram $29.9 Greetham, senior legal counsel for the Chickasaw Nation, told The Oklahoman’s Randy Ellis that tribes were willing Joe Dorman neighborhoods” with tradi- of Oklahoma’s households National School Lunch to talk about rates but that they felt it was better to explore It was an honor and a priv- tionally low response rates with either no home inter- options being employed by other states, such as sports wa- ilege to speak to a group of to census questionnaires. net or dial up-only. If you Program $18.9 gering, as a way to “grow the base.” concerned Garfield County The Urban Institute, a Wash- are one of these households, Temporary Assistance for However, after Stitt’s news conference, Greetham noted residents last week about ington, DC-based thinktank, consider using your local Needy Families $17.2 that of the 306 compacts that U.S. states have with tribes, the United State Census and estimates that as many as public library, which most the impact this 2020 count 37,600 Oklahoma residents likely offers a free internet Section 8 Housing Choice 14 involved exclusivity fee rates between 20% and 25%. Oklahoma’s maximum rate of 10% “puts us among the will likely have on our state. may be undercounted in connection. Vouchers $15.8 company of the 92% of the other compacts that have a rate The good news for Garfield 2020 without a coordinated If Oklahoma has a strong Title 1 Grants to Lo- around that or less,” he said. Translation: 25% is not hap- County is it was one of the effort to generate a better census count, then we may better performing commu- response rate. That num- be in line to add another seat cal Education Agencies pening here. Greetham points out that in 2004, it was es- timated tribal gaming might produce $55 million per year nities across the state, with ber is important, because it to our U.S. House delega- $14.3 for the state. Adjusted for inflation, that projection would a 2010 census response rate directly correlates with the tion, possibly taking from Special Education Grants mean roughly $850 million to the state over 15 years, he of approximately 73 per- amount of federal funding a state like California. A to States $14 said. In fact, tribes have paid nearly $1.6 billion to the state cent. That compares favor- Oklahoma will receive in the count also ensures we maxi- ably to Oklahoma’s overall immediate future. mize our return on dollars By providing an accurate in revenue sharing payments, including $148 million in fiscal year 2019. In late October, tribal leaders met with response rate of 68 percent, Luckily, doing your part covering federal programs count, these dollars, which Attorney General Mike Hunter, whom the governor desig- and just below the national and filling out a census ques- provided through the US are divided proportionally nated to lead negotiations. Stitt said Thursday that the state rate of 74 percent. tionnaire is easier than ever. Census count. Some of the by population, will cover “was kicked out of that meeting before we could present Based on the latest cen- This year there will only be federal programs that rely on our plan” and that the tribes, who rejected the state’s offer sus estimates (for the 2013- a short form with ten ques- census data to direct spend- hundreds of thousands of to use a mediator, “have refused to communicate with me.” 2017 period), 3,786,725 tions per household. In ad- ing are listed below. Oklahomans and help keep Greetham said the tribes plan to operate as normal if a people lived in 1,468,971 dition, for the first time in Top 10 Programs that Rely our own state tax dollars at a new agreement isn’t reached by Jan. 1. The governor con- households in Oklahoma, history, Americans can sub- on Census Data (in billions) lower rate overall. Please do tends having no new compact in place would cause “ex- and 109,526 people lived mit their information over Medicaid treme uncertainty.” The state and federal governments in group quarters, for a to- the Internet (as well as via $311.8 your part, as Garfield County have options available if gaming is conducted without a tal population of 3,896,251. traditional mail or over the Supplemental Nutri- is doing, to help raise aware- compact, Stitt said, “but that’s not my wish.” Finding those people and phone). To reduce costs, the tion Assistance Program ness and encourage your “My wish,” he said, “is ... to sit down and have produc- verifying those population Census Bureau will be urg- $71.0 tive conversations and get this behind us.” That seems a estimates, however, will be ing most households to sub- Medicare Part B neighbors to fill out the 2020 very tall order at this point. challenging. Roughly one- mit their census responses $70.3 Census, starting next March! ICER discriminates against people with rare diseases By Randall Rutta could undermine research pies. sition is that these individu- perimental compounds even evaluates rare disease drugs FDA officials approved a into rare diseases. ICER analyzes drugs’ als aren’t in perfect health make it out of the lab. using roughly the same record number of rare dis- The group, the Institute cost-effectiveness using a to begin with. So, the group Pharmaceutical compa- cost-effectiveness thresh- ease treatments last year. for Clinical and Economic metric called a “quality ad- doesn’t count an additional nies have to charge enough olds it uses for traditional, One groundbreaking medi- Review (ICER), analyzes justed life year.” A QALY 12 months of life expectancy to earn back their develop- mass market medicines. cine treats an inherited bone quantifies the cost of pro- the “cost-effectiveness” of as a full QALY. ment costs. For common condition that causes intense many new FDA-approved viding a patient with 12 ad- For example, our hypo- conditions that afflict mil- Given this rigged scale, it’s pain and immobility. Anoth- drugs, including treatments ditional months of perfect thetical treatment for a ge- lions of patients, companies no wonder that rare disease er treats Fabry disease, a ge- for rare diseases. Because health. netic disease might still might only need to charge a treatments score poorly. netic condition that can lead it relies on flawed assump- Imagine a healthy woman extend a 90-year-old infirm few dollars per pill to recoup Scientists are developing to kidney failure or stroke. tions, ICER mostly con- has an incurable -- but dor- patient’s life by one year, their development costs. more than 560 medicines Breakthroughs like these cludes that rare disease treat- mant -- genetic disease that but ICER might count the By contrast, rare diseases to treat rare diseases. That offer hope to 30 million ments aren’t worth the price. will kill her almost instantly gain as only 0.5 QALY, due affect just 200,000 people research will likely come Americans living with rare ICER hopes that health once it’s activated. If a treat- to the perceived lower qual- at most. So companies need diseases. But there’s still a insurers will use its findings ment could delay activa- ity of his/her life. As a result, to a halt -- causing patients to generate far more rev- long way to go. Scientists to decide which medicines tion by one year and it costs that same $30,000 treatment to lose access to lifesaving enue per patient just to break estimate there are 7,000 rare to cover. If the group’s mes- $30,000, then ICER would would cost $60,000 on a even. Rare disease treat- drugs -- if insurers fail to diseases, each of which af- sage -- rare disease treat- say the treatment costs QALY-adjusted basis -- po- ments also tend to be fragile, recognize the faults in IC- flicts fewer than 200,000 ments aren’t worth it -- wins $30,000 per QALY. tentially blocking access and large-molecule drugs that ER’s reasoning. people. The majority of the day, drug companies This metric effectively affordability for patients. require numerous manufac- Randall Rutta, the former these ailments -- 95 percent may well stop researching discriminates against the el- Rare disease drugs are ex- turing, shipping, and storage -- lack a single approved and developing rare disease derly, persons with chronic pensive for a reason. It can precautions -- further inflat- president and CEO of Eas- treatment. treatments. And millions of conditions and other sick- take over a decade and $2.6 ing costs. terseals, is board chairman Unfortunately, one promi- Americans would lose ac- nesses, and people living billion to bring a new medi- ICER largely disregards of the Partnership to Fight nent healthcare nonprofit cess to life-changing thera- with disabilities. ICER’s po- cine to patients. Few ex- these differences. The group Chronic Disease. Have something to share? Send your letter to [email protected]