BY WARREN VIETH, Oklahoma Watch
When the government starts helping low-wage workers pay for health insurance next year, 6,704 Oklahoma cooks will be left empty-handed.
So will 6,154 cashiers, 4,572 waiters, 4,207 housekeepers and 3,870 retail salespeople, an Oklahoma Watch data analysis shows.
They are among 109,227 uninsured Oklahoma workers whose annual incomes fall below the federal poverty level, making them ineligible for health-insurance tax credits that take effect in January.
Most of them also are ineligible to participate in SoonerCare, Oklahoma's version of Medicaid, because it doesn't cover most working adults unless they have dependent children, and then only if they make less than $4,368 a year for a two-person family.
The Oklahoma Watch analysis uses Census Bureau survey data to determine which occupations and employers have the largest number of uninsured working people who will remain stuck in the health care “coverage crater” — a gap created by the state's decision not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
The working poor comprise a little more than a third of the total coverage crater population.
Read more on NewsOK.com