Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready announced today the 2021 preliminary rate filings for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Insurers that currently offer coverage through the Oklahoma Marketplace filed plans requesting average statewide increases of 2.7 percent.
The same three insurers that offered individual health plans on the 2020 Exchange will return for 2021 — Blue Cross Shield of Oklahoma (BCBSOK) , Bright Health and Medica Insurance Company. In addition, Oscar Health, UnitedHealthCare (UHC) and CommunityCare Oklahoma (CCOK) will join the marketplace in Oklahoma for 2021 allowing consumers to have more choices. BCBSOK and Medica offer statewide plans while Bright Health, CCOK, Oscar and UHC serve limited areas of the state.
Moderate rate increase requests and new insurers looking to offer plans in Oklahoma revealed that the Oklahoma insurance market is stable and able to offer multiple health insurance options for all Oklahomans.
“Creating more choices for consumers has been a top priority of mine and it is encouraging to see more insurers enter the Oklahoma market and another year of modest rate change requests. It demonstrates our efforts to stabilize and improve affordability in this market have been working,” Insurance Commissioner Glen Mulready said. “Oklahoma continues to have a healthy, competitive individual health insurance market, and insurers are committed to providing more options for Oklahomans who seek health insurance on the Marketplace.”
Rate filings for 2021 health insurance plans were approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and are posted at https://ratereview.healthcare.gov/. Final approved rates will be made public in September.
If you have questions about other insurance issues, contact the Oklahoma Insurance Department at 1-800-522-0071 or visit our website at www.oid.ok.gov.

By Nick Thomas

Born and raised in West Virginia, David Selby’s extensive film, television, and stage career included prominent roles in two very different TV shows in different generations: ABC’s gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows” in the 60s and the prime-time soap “Falcon Crest” on CBS in the 80s.
“My mother (Sarah) loved that I was an actor,” said Selby from Los Angeles, but she had no background in the entertainment world. Her upbringing in a coal mining town was a tough one, being responsible for raising her brothers and sisters.
“She managed to graduate from high school and met my father who was raised on a farm,” recalled Selby. “Mom continued to work hard at various jobs including the local Montgomery Wards, in a bakeshop, and her last job was as a bookkeeper in an office supply place. But she never liked to talk about herself – at all. Her focus was always on the family. She was also a meticulous housekeeper and did not like messes.”
Tidying, says Selby, is a trait he inherited and for which his family has always ribbed him for his constant dusting, washing, and sweeping. “Sarah is among us!” he says his wife, Chip, will lovingly announce.
To honor his late mother and her influence on his life, Selby wrote “They Don’t Call Me Sarah for Nothing,” a short but compelling monologue he composed for Smartphone Theatre, a live stream digital performance platform presented via Zoom and created during the early pandemic months to showcase original productions. Selby’s reading streamed live in March 2022 and can be viewed on YouTube (https://youtu.be/cm7mFA_VF6c).
“I would act like my mother unconsciously,” he said. “The kids would say ‘grandma says that’ or my wife would say ‘you sound like your mother.’ So, I wrote ‘They Don’t Call Me Sarah for Nothing’ because it was cathartic for me to talk about her and realize, my God, how much she meant to me.”
Despite their loving relationship, young David found her constant working difficult to understand. Nevertheless, he recalled, “she always somehow managed to look like a million dollars! Even taking out the trash or going to the grocery store in our little community, she was always cautious about looking her best.”
As he grew older and with no initial interest in acting, Selby planned to enroll in West Virginia University but needed tuition funds. “So, I went to Atlantic City in the summer and worked at a restaurant, then returned with a pocket full of money to pay for my first half-year’s tuition. I lived at home so I could walk to class as a freshman, but didn’t really know what I was going to do.”
That’s when an adviser for students whose names started with an ‘S’ spotted Selby standing in the enrollment line for classes. “He said, ‘you look like you could be in theater’ and it turned out he was a theater instructor,” Selby remembered. “He talked me into it and, lo and behold, I began doing plays at the university right away.”
After completing his degree, Selby moved to Illinois where he completed a Ph.D. in the arts, but not before moving to the East Coast and accepting his first TV role.
“I didn’t finish my Ph.D. until after I was in New York doing ‘Dark Shadows’ – in fact, I copied my dissertation at the office where we shot the show,” he recalled. His wife even took a job as an editor and then as a college English teacher so David could pursue his acting career (see http://www.davidselby.com).
But what did his mom really think about his acting career?
“She watched every show I did, from the plays at university and summer stock to ‘Dark Shadows,’ ‘Falcon Crest’ and everything else,” he says. “Aside from my wife, my mother was my biggest fan. I loved her dearly.”

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, in Alabama, and has written features, columns, and interviews for numerous magazines and newspapers. See https://www.getnickt.org.

Incoming college freshmen, fresh people, first years, plebes or whatever name you give yourselves, let me say I’m as nervous as you are.
But for entirely different reasons.
You anguish over the possibility that your first semester, perhaps your first year, of college will be conducted virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Rather than hanging out in dorm rooms, meeting new friends and walking with those friends to lecture halls filled with fellow students, you’ll be forced to sit, alone, in your childhood bedrooms, watching professors drone on about American literature, African history and God knows what from God knows where.
Not exactly the college experience you were hoping for, correct? Raise your hand if you want to pledge a virtual sorority and attend an online keg party?
While some schools are determined to open this fall — so far, it’s full speed ahead for the University of Iowa — other schools are wavering. California State University, the nation’s largest four-year, public university system, announced all 23 of its campuses would remain empty for the start of the 2020 term.
On a more alarming note, Harvard Medical School has made the same decision. This fall first year students in its medical, dental and graduate programs will be learning the basics of their crafts virtually. Which is precisely why I’m so nervous.
Wouldn’t you be? Knowing your future heart surgeon, orthopedist or endodontist may have acquired his or her, uh, skills, via Zoom?
As I write this column, I hearken back to my first year at Northwestern University, where I learned the rudimentary skills of journalism, including how to correctly use words like “hearken” and “rudimentary.” The adrenaline rush I felt as a class full of budding journalists pounded out story after story in hopes our work would be finished before our professor yelled, “TIME!” provided a taste of the deadline pressures I faced daily in my first newspaper job. When my editor screamed, “Schwem, I needed that copy five minutes ago,” from across the newsroom, I knew he was serious.
Were that same editor to scream at me from a small window on a computer screen, I probably would have clicked “mute” and kept writing, oblivious to time constraints.
Now imagine undergoing an operation and seeing not a team of medical personnel, but a lone physician staring down at you.
While trying to connect to a Zoom meeting.
I hope the anesthesia kicks in quickly, so I don’t have to hear the following dialogue:
“Hello everybody. Dr. Linden here. We are set to perform bypass surgery on male patient Schwem. I’m excited to be working with all of you. I just realized we all went to Harvard. How cool! Is everybody on? Nurse O’Malley?”
“I’m here.”
“Nurse, turn your phone horizontally so you get a wider view of the patient’s heart. There you go. Is the surgical tech on?”
“I’m here. Hang on, let me shut my office door so my dog doesn’t interrupt.”
“Please hurry. We’ve already started the anesthesia. Maybe I should have initiated the meeting first. My bad.”
“Doctor, can you move closer to your computer’s microphone? I didn’t hear the last part of that sentence.”
“I said, ‘My bad.’”
“What? What’s bad.”
“Never mind. OK, I’m going to make the first incision. Can everybody see?”
“You need to screen share, Doctor.”
“Stand by. Better?”
“Much.”
“Doctor, I’m looking at the monitor behind you. It appears the patient’s heart rhythm is falling.”
“No, I just checked. It’s fine. Maybe you need to adjust your screen resolution.”
“Stand by.”
“Doctor, from what I’m seeing, it seems the patient is losing a large amount of blood.”
“I concur. But I’ve got it under control. We all learned about blood transfusions at Harvard, right? Well, we learned it virtually but at least we learned it.”
“Virtual blood transfusions. Awesome class!”
“Oh no, I’ve lost him.”
“Who? The patient?”
“No, the surgical tech. Can you ping him and get him to dial back in?”
“Stand by.”
(Greg Schwem is a corporate stand-up comedian and author of two books: “Text Me If You’re Breathing: Observations, Frustrations and Life Lessons From a Low-Tech Dad” and the recently released “The Road To Success Goes Through the Salad Bar: A Pile of BS From a Corporate Comedian,” available at Amazon.com. Visit Greg on the web at www.gregschwem.com.)

You’ve enjoyed reading, and laughing at, Greg Schwem’s monthly humor columns in Senior Living News. But did you know Greg is also a nationally touring stand-up comedian? And he loves to make audiences laugh about the joys, and frustrations, of growing older. Watch the clip and, if you’d like Greg to perform at your senior center or senior event, contact him through his website at www.gregschwem.com)

LEGEND SENIOR LIVING® ANNOUNCES NAME CHANGE OF OKC’S LIONWOOD TO “ACCLAIM INDEPENDENT LIVING”

Legend Senior Living announced today that it is changing the name
of Lionwood Independent Living to Acclaim Independent Living. Legend Senior Living, a family-owned senior living provider headquartered in Wichita, KS, manages the residence and owns and operates nearly
50 other Legend and Windsor residences in six states. Acclaim, at 12525 N. Pennsylvania Ave., is one of ten Legend residences in Oklahoma.
“’Acclaim’ better captures the feeling of vibrant Independent Living that Legend is known for,” said Paul Hansen, Legend’s Vice President of Marketing, explaining the name change. “The focus at Acclaim is
Legend’s trademark independent lifestyle with emphasis on social interaction, wellness, and providing a stress-free, carefree life to allow more time to explore new interests, enjoy family, and live a vibrant life
Oklahoma’s seniors are looking for.” As with other Legend Independent Living residences, Acclaim is a pets-welcome residence featuring beautiful amenities and services for a total neighborhood experience, including chef-prepared meals, freedom from home maintenance, and weekly housekeeping. Residents enjoy on-site common areas and lounges, lush landscaping in courtyards and gardens, game rooms, a beauty salon, and a library.
“Acclaim is near restaurants, shopping, and other attractions important to an active lifestyle,” said Hansen. “Residents ‘acclaim’ the Legend concept of fun, friends, and life at its fullest. The new name is the natural fit.”
Legend Senior Living® is a privately held senior housing and services company based in Wichita, Kansas, and owns and operates nearly 50 independent living, assisted living, memory care, and personal care residences in Florida, Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania. Legend has been certified as a Great Place to Work® for the fifth time and recognized as one of Fortune Magazine’s Top 25 Senior Living companies in the country and is a Top 50 senior living provider.

Story by Vickie Jenkins, Staff Writer

Just for Seniors is a licensed companion-sitter agency providing services to help families care for aging loved-ones. We provide a variety of “rent-a-daughter” services that help fill-in for families when busy schedules will not allow. Our goal is to keep the seniors you love living safely and comfortably at home without the need for a care facility.
Our passion is getting seniors out of the house and engaged in the community while they still can. We love working with seniors to find fun and stimulating activities that get them excited and improve their quality of life. (story continues below)

Just for Seniors has been in business since August 20, 2012. Deborah Wallace started the business because her mom needed someone to help her. “It was after my dad passed away, my mom had several small strokes and could no longer drive. I was working at Chesapeake at the time so taking time off during the day was very challenging. Trying to handle things in the evenings and weekends was exhausting. I was also very concerned that she was spending most of her time in the house watching TV. I wanted her to at least get a change of scenery on a routine basis. I needed someone to take her to the beauty shop every week and to lunch a couple days a week. I needed someone to take her grocery shopping and run errands so I didn’t have to do it on my time off. All the commercial options we found had a three to four hours service minimum. That was more action than she could handle. Ultimately, we were able to find someone privately to help her, but I knew there was a need,” Deborah explained.
Currently, we are the only Just for Seniors; we are not a franchise. There are six part-time employees, five in the OKC metro area and one in Stillwater. Officially, they are called, Just for Seniors Associates. “Unofficially, they are called, Rent-a-Daughter/Son,” Deborah said with a smile. “We have approximately ninety clients signed up to use our service. Roughly, thirty to forty people use us each month.”
Deborah grew up in Oklahoma. “My dad was a Methodist minister so we moved around Oklahoma every three to four years. I was born in Lawton and lived in Chickasha, Choctaw, Hugo, OKC, Weatherford, Pryor and Guymon before graduating OU in 1988. I moved to Houston, staying there until 2007 when I returned to OKC to help my parents. That was quite a few moves! I currently live in Bethany and plan on staying here for a while,” she said.
Starting high school in Weatherford, OK, Deborah graduated high school in Pryor, OK. She earned her undergrad BBA in Management Information Systems from OU. She earned her graduate MBA in Finance and International Business via night school from the University of Houston.
Deborah wears many hats as a business owner and says that each day is dramatically different. “After spending twenty-five years in an office, I try to spend as little time as possible in the office now,” she said. “My office time is usually focused on accounting and administrative activities,” Deborah said. “I am the primary marketer so I am responsible for networking and marketing activities. I work with families to find resources that address their loved ones needs. I still do some caregiving so I might be helping a client with something,” she added.
Asking Deborah what her biggest reward is from Just for Seniors, she replied, “Helping a senior solve a problem that be a challenge for them could be something easy for me or an associate. Sometimes, resolving little issues can make a huge difference in the quality of someone’s life. That brings me satisfaction that I never felt during my twenty-five years in corporate America. I love working with the seniors and knowing that they are being taken care of.”
“Finding good Senior Associates is something we are looking for each day. We are growing quickly and we are always looking for new associates in certain parts of town. It is a challenge to find people of the right fit.”
On a personal note, Deborah likes spending time with her wonderful husband, Steve. “We don’t have any human children but we try to save as many dogs as possible. We currently have a crazy rescued Pomeranian.”
For more information visit: www.justforseniorsok.com.

by Nick Thomas

It’s a sobering thought for fans of classic film. The passing of Olivia de Havilland in late July, just three weeks after her 104th birthday July 1, represents the loss of the last surviving big-screen legend from Hollywood’s Golden Age of the 1930s.
While other actors are still with us who were indeed active in film during the 30s, Ms. de Havilland was truly the last A-list star from that era whose name could be bundled with the likes of Bogart, Gable, Hepburn, and so many others. They are simply now all gone.
While I never had the chance to interview de Havilland directly, she did answer some questions by mail in 2009 for a story I was preparing for the Washington Post on the centenary of Errol Flynn’s birth.
The letter arrived by FedEx from France where she lived for most of her post-Hollywood life and was hand-signed in her glorious flowing script. In it, she shared some memories of the Aussie co-star with whom she was frequently cast.
De Havilland and Flynn (1909-1959) were one of the most popular on-screen couples during the early classic film era. The pair worked together in eight movies from 1935 to 1941 and appeared in separate scenes in a ninth film, “Thank Your Lucky Stars,” in 1943.
Flynn, of course, continued to be sensationalized by the press and authors long after his death. Was he mischaracterized, I asked her?
“His roguish reputation was very well-deserved, as he more than candidly revealed in his remarkable autobiography, ‘My Wicked, Wicked Ways,’” she wrote. “However, through this very same book, we also know that he was a reflective person – sensitive, idealistic, vulnerable, and questing. But I think he has been incompletely represented by the press: It vulgarized his adventures with the opposite sex and seldom, if ever, touched upon or emphasized the other facets of his life.”
Despite his popularity, Flynn was never recognized for his acting with even an Oscar nomination (de Havilland was nominated 5 times and won twice). Was that an oversight, I asked her?
“Unfortunately, at the time when Errol enjoyed his greatest success, the adventure film, as a genre, was not sufficiently appreciated and therefore his appearances therein were not as highly regarded as they might,” she explained. “However, I do feel he played his roles with unmatchable verve, conviction, and style. In doing so, he inherited the mantle of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., who was my favorite film star. No one since Errol has worn that mantle; it is buried with him.”
I was also curious if she ran into Flynn after their time together on-screen. She said that happened only on three occasions, the last one at the Beverly Hilton’s Costumers Ball two years before his death.
“Quite unexpectedly, while I was talking to friends during the cocktail hour, Errol left his own group and asked if he could take me to dinner,” she recalled. “He seated me on his immediate right and, soon joined by others, took on the role of gracious host with everyone on his left – all the ladies – while I did my best to entertain the gentleman on my right.”
De Havilland’s letter concluded with a delightful postscript indicating a longtime private ritual which she adhered to every year.
“On June 20 (Flynn’s birthday), I raised a glass of champagne to Errol, as I always do.”
Come next July, many classic film fans will likely repeat that ritual to honor Olivia, too.

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 800 newspapers and magazines.