{"id":476562,"date":"2026-02-18T21:35:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/476562\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T21:35:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T21:35:16","slug":"whats-next-for-us-healthcare-ask-oklahoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/476562\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Next for US Healthcare? Ask Oklahoma."},"content":{"rendered":"

Politics<\/a><\/p>\n

\/ <\/p>\n

StudentNation<\/a><\/p>\n

\/
\n February 18, 2026<\/p>\n

As Trump continues to dismantle federal agencies, this state shows what happens when a one-party-controlled government makes sweeping public health changes with little resistance.<\/p>\n

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A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine at an Oklahoma County Health Department Vaccine Clinic.<\/p>\n

(Nick Oxford \/ Getty)<\/p>\n

This story was produced for StudentNation, a program of the Nation Fund for Independent Journalism<\/a>, which is dedicated to highlighting the best of student journalism. For more StudentNation, check out\u00a0our archive<\/a>\u00a0or learn more about the program\u00a0here<\/a>. StudentNation is made possible through generous funding from\u00a0The Puffin Foundation<\/a>. If you\u2019re a student and you have an article idea, please send pitches and questions to\u00a0[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/p>\n

In early 2021<\/a>, employees at Oklahoma\u2019s new \u201cstate-of-the-art\u201d Public Health Laboratory in Stillwater found expensive lab equipment at their workstations, but not enough free electrical outlets. Instead of a smooth opening, they were greeted with slow Internet service and an early power outage. By September, federal inspectors at the laboratory found things hadn\u2019t improved: virus samples stored in an unlocked refrigerator, boxes of expired reagents stacked at entrances, and rows of empty desks.<\/p>\n

The lab also lacked specialized personnel, forcing some tests out-of-state to Minnesota as workers reportedly mishandled Covid-19 samples and use of expired materials for screening. One worker warned<\/a> that the move to the new lab was a \u201churried, thoughtless decision that needs reconsideration and more planning.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Janis Blevin\u2019s family, the rushed move also meant five weeks of \u201cworry and concern\u201d after her granddaughter\u2019s newborn screening was processed through the Stillwater lab. In interviews, Blevin and her daughter, Lori Zehnder, described how the newborn was subject to five blood draws, two catheter urine collections, and five doctor\u2019s appointments in the very first frantic weeks of life due to a false positive for Malonic Acidemia. \u201cThose first six weeks were rough without having to add on something that could have been easily avoided if someone had taken the necessary steps to make sure things were done correctly,\u201d Zehnder told KFOR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much of this largely avoidable disarray is the natural result of a one-party state testing the boundaries of administrative power and opacity. Oklahoma\u2019s Republican-controlled government has made sweeping administrative decisions with almost no resistance\u2014a \u201cperfect storm,\u201d according to Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Overlapping state and federal funding withdrawals have led to cuts, closed-door decision-making, a lack of oversight, and confused patients, all of which threatens \u201cthe ability to provide what is needed to keep communities safe and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Families in Oklahoma, like the Blevins, have felt the consequences of these decisions firsthand. In 2025, the state\u2019s healthcare system was ranked 49th\u2014nearly the worst<\/a> in the nation\u2014by the Commonwealth Fund. Mothers and children have been hit the hardest, with women facing a 25 percent higher<\/a> mortality rate from 2020 to 2021, as the live birth death rate is nearly seven points above the national average. \u201cWorkforce shortages existed well before the pandemic, but the past three years have strained hospital resources like never before,\u201d writes the Oklahoma Hospital Association<\/a>. And in rural areas, it\u2019s even worse.<\/p>\n

Now, just one year into his term, President Trump and his administration are attempting something similar on a national scale. They have fired and re-\\hired<\/a> workers across departments, leaving key management positions vacant including the chief medical officer and the head of the Office of Public Health Data. Since taking office, nearly $1 billion has been cut from ongoing pandemic-preparedness R&D. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s promotion of anti-vaccine policy<\/a> and conspiracy-based rhetoric have added to the compounding chaos in the nation\u2019s preventive health systems.<\/p>\n

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Rather than working to improve public health outcomes, the Trump administration has treated experts as adversaries to be undermined and weakened<\/a>. \u201cWith fewer experts at our nation\u2019s leading health agencies, Americans will suffer more preventable diseases,\u201d according to Dr. Robert Steinbrook<\/a>, director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group, \u201cand more unsafe drugs and medical devices will be marketed.\u201d<\/p>\n

What should Americans expect from a system that intentionally lacks basic accountability and oversight? A slowdown of preventive measures, increased reliance on corporate labs, the dismantling of biodefense programs, possible destruction of stockpiles of vaccines, and unpredictable swings in guidelines and subsidies (as is already happening with Obamacare).<\/p>\n

Oklahoma has continued to drastically reduce its public health spending. Along with the state\u2019s refusal of the ACA subsidies, the Oklahoma\u2019s Division of Government Efficiency returned nearly $157 million<\/a> in federal healthcare grants it deemed \u201cwasteful,\u201d which effectively rolled back programs such as supplemental immunization funding, community health workforce initiatives, and impactful public health lab services, including newborn screening and epidemiological surveillance.<\/p>\n

The state has a long-standing opposition<\/a> to federally funded public health measures, even if it means rejecting billions in grants and aid, and Oklahoma was one of the first states to refuse<\/a> to create a federally mandated state insurance exchange. Recently, the governor worked to draw more right-wing ideological lines by issuing an executive order<\/a> to terminate Medicaid providers that are referred to or were affiliated with abortion services, going so far as to mandate providers to attest that they would stand by the \u201cpro-life\u201d standard.<\/p>\n

State Senator Paul Rosino, chair of the Senate Health and Human Services committee, noted that the state expects a shortfall of nearly $700 million to $1 billion<\/a> in Medicaid and SNAP from federal grants, with no clear alternative for supplemental medical programs and leaving many without full healthcare access.<\/p>\n

In 2020, when Governor Kevin Stitt decided the public health laboratory needed a change of scenery, the agency had already \u201cexperienced some legislative resistance to the move to Stillwater,\u201d according to internal e-mails<\/a>. Rather than improving the deteriorating OKC lab, the Stitt administration decided to push through the move, as state officials wished to have the deal \u201cin place sooner rather than later,\u201d hoping to finalize the move before lawmakers and voters could intervene. At the time, changing the lab was confusing, and, in hindsight, even more so.<\/p>\n

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Along with the faulty lab, the Stitt administration promised a collaborative \u201cOklahoma Pandemic Center of Innovation and Excellence.\u201d According to Dr. George Monks<\/a>, former head of the Oklahoma State Medical Association, the center was created to test emerging variants of coronavirus. Yet, as of April 2022, state officials described the center as still \u201ca work in progress,\u201d despite the hiring of a CEO, executives, and a private company to manage the center. Posting on X, Monks attributed the center to being a \u201c$30 million ghost,\u201d noting that its website went offline on March 30, 2023<\/a>, despite a grand ribbon-cutting.<\/p>\n

A lack of oversight from bipartisan forces and surrounding advisers is what allowed Oklahoma to make these ill-advised decisions, and it is what will allow the Trump administration to continue pulling apart the American healthcare system.<\/p>\n

If the structure of the state\u2019s system takes hold nationally, the unified federal health infrastructure that has supported families in the United States won\u2019t exist for much longer. In simple terms, residents in California, Oklahoma, or New York will have radically different access to vaccines, outbreak alerts, reproductive care, and diagnostic tests.<\/p>\n

Red states will build one healthcare model, while blue states will build another. And if the creation of this fractured system continues to lack resistance, reunifying healthcare and establishing national standards might become an impossible task.<\/p>\n

Rahhul Elangovan<\/a><\/p>\n

Rahhul Elangovan is a student at the University of Oklahoma studying biochemistry and biomedical data\/policy. His work focuses on public health systems and health policy decision-making.<\/p>\n

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