The total cost for health care in Oklahoma would not change, whether we took back that money or not; it would just mean that Oklahoma individuals and companies could get help to pay part of the cost.

The equally conservative states of Utah, Nebraska and Idaho figured that out and voted by substantial majority in referendums last November to take back their tax dollars to help pay for health care.

Our failure to do the same is shutting down rural hospitals and nursing homes in Oklahoma. For what? To jab Barack Obama? He’s not president any more. Because of concern about administrative cost? It’s somewhere between zero and 10 percent of the new monies Oklahomans would receive.

We now have the opportunity to get that money back on our terms because the current administration is very flexible about state variances. Insure Oklahoma, our very popular, home-grown health care program, could be modified to accept the new funding.

Or we could hang back — bleeding dollars through higher taxes, cost shifting to paying patients, lower quality of health care for Oklahomans and a “tapeworm” on our businesses — and vie with Mississippi to be the last to accept this bargain.