A minority of senators and representatives in Arkansas, just 25 percent, could vote this month to end the Private Option Medicaid expansion in Arkansas that provides health insurance coverage for 267,000 low-income Arkansans. Sen. Bryan King [R-Green Forest] and Rep. Bob Ballinger [R-Hindsville] are among the biggest foes of the Private Option. These legislators, who got their salaries doubled due to passage of a convoluted constitutional amendment that was supposed to be about lobby reform, have promised to vote against the program because it adds too much to the federal deficit.
This could be one of the worst decisions ever made in Arkansas politics. Not only would this throw 267,000 state residents under the bus with no way to get subsidized healthcare, it would endanger many of our hospitals, clinics and the nurses and doctors who work for them. That’s what has happened in surrounding states that didn’t expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare.
Ballinger said the Private Option is a perfect example of crony capitalism and that millions are going to CEOs of insurance companies rather than directly to healthcare. For sure, Arkansas would have been better off with a straight Medicaid expansion that cut out the middleman. But Republicans refused to do that, and instead wanted private companies involved.
Is Arkansas really going to let a handful of legislators send $1 billion per year in economic impact back to Washington D.C. from one of the poorest states in the U.S.? The government isn’t going to miss the money. Over half the discretionary spending in the U.S. – nearly $500 billion in 2015 – goes to military operations. As Dr. John House said, there would be plenty of money left for providing healthcare for Americans if we stopped bombing the hell out of people in other countries.
So far there has been no state match required to get the federal money. Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson has proposed reforms and cutting waste from the state’s traditional Medicaid program in order to make up the five percent match needed in 2017. Basically that would mean no extra state funds would be needed. If the program is ended, Hutchinson said it would result in a $100 million budget hole in the state.
There could be a domino effect from ending this program. Oklahoma, which refused the Medicaid expansion, just announced it is cutting reimbursement rates paid to 46,000 Medicaid providers by 25 percent. Imagine running any business, and suddenly your income is cut by 25 percent.
Dropping the Private Option would be a great economic injustice. Higher income people would still be able to purchase subsidized healthcare, but most of the lower income people currently covered would get no help at all. Hospitals in the state would be forced to going back to writing off millions per year in uncompensated care.
Small rural hospitals, in particular, struggle with profitability. If the Eureka Springs Hospital closes as a result, we lose a local hospital with an emergency room that is one of the biggest employers in town paying some of the highest salaries.
If the Private Option is dropped, people will die as a result. Hospitals will struggle, and some small hospitals like Eureka’s could close. Healthcare practitioners will take a big hit in income.
Many Eurekans work more than one job during the season to make it through the winter. The Private Option was the first time many got health insurance. In some cases, it has even allowed people to go back to work.
But now King and Ballinger want to dump these folks off insurance, and put our hospitals and clinics in jeopardy of closing. Even if there is no love for their fellow citizens, what about the economic impact? The Arkansas Hospital Association said even with the state match, there is a net benefit to the state budget of $757 million from 2017 to 2021 from keeping the Private Option.
We’d tell you to talk to Ballinger and King, who recently accepted a free trip to Florida for meeting with a group that opposes the Private Option. But there seems to be little doubt they are ready to let others suffers so they can pride themselves on being anti-Obamacare – while keeping health insurance and doubled legislative salaries themselves.
Becky Gillette