By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Funding private-option health insurance for the state’s working poor with federal money was at the top of the agenda as the General Assembly convened Monday and got down to business Tuesday.
The so-called private option was Arkansas’ unique plan to expand Medicaid as required by the Affordable Care Act.
If legislators don’t fund the option, it will leave a $90 million hole in the state budget and hit family budgets hard, making it difficult for them to get health insurance, according to state Rep. Walls McCrary (D-Lonoke).
Failure to approve the private option will also risk canceling $140 million in tax cuts that were largely paid with savings from the health-insurance measure and used to win reluctant lawmakers’ support.
Alternatively at risk are new beds for the state’s burgeoning prison population and at Arkansas hospitals large and small.
House Speaker Davy Carter (R-Cabot) seems determined not to let that happen. He believes the House will approve the private option in the first week and a half or two weeks. He’s less sure about the Senate, but said it would be wrong to leave Arkansans in the lurch who signed up for the private option the General Assembly approved last April.
McCrary is among those suggesting that, if funding the private option fails, the state may need to take back some of the tax cuts. The package included cuts to the state’s taxes on income, capital gains and manufacturers’ utility bills. The package also included tax breaks for farmers, volunteer firefighters and armed service members.
“Private option is putting Arkansas in the driver’s seat,” McCrary said. “It’s hard to
believe we wouldn’t continue on — not only to control our own destiny and help people, but also because of the savings to the state.”
He said that, according to the Department of Finance and Administration, the measure doesn’t cost the state. It saves Arkansas “a tremendous amount of money.”
McCrary said the likelihood of the General Assembly funding the measure it approved during the last session depends on who you talk to.
“It’s hard to believe that enough won’t come around,” he said. “It’s solid. Good for Democrats and Republicans.”
McCrary said the bill may have an easier time in the House than the Senate. But, either way, the 75 percent requirement is a significant hurdle, he said.
“If we have to find $90 million, where’s that going to come from?” he asked. “Will we need to do away with the tax cuts we made last time because of the anticipated saving from private option?”
McCrary said he had been in meetings with officials from state agencies that are just barely making it now. And “they just can’t stand another cut,” he said.
KICKED IN
McCrary said the private option just kicked in a month ago, and it’s far too early to judge it.
He said 2015 is the earliest it ought to be reconsidered.
“It’s going to be a sad day for Arkansas if we don’t pass this,” McCrary said. “Legislators and their constituents will suffer a lot of repercussions.”
He said he’d be open to some minor tweaking, but nothing that would harm or end the program.
The New York Times has picked up the story, suggesting the irony of Arkansas turning its back on the innovative private option it pioneered while other states like Iowa, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Utah have adopted the private option or are considering it.
IT’S LAW
State Rep. David Hillman (D-Almyra) agreed. He said, “I’m going to do what’s best for Arkansas.”
Hillman, a rice farmer and former president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau board, represents parts of southern White County and eastern Lonoke County, north of Carlisle.
“Whether we like Obama-care or not — and it’s one of the worst things put on the American people — it’s the law and I’m going to obey the law,” Hillman said.
He said he thought the Legislature last year “came up with a good way, a unique way” to satisfy the law. “I applaud the people who came up with this idea,” he said.
State Sen. Jane English (R-North Little Rock) voted against the private option last year.
“I’m still working. This is not an easy thing. There are an awful lot of things to think about,” she said, but declined to identify any of them specifically.
“There’s a lot at the national level that affects what we’re doing here. Every day there is a new change that may affect what we’re doing here,” English insisted.
She said she thought the vote would be close and that Speaker Carter, (R-Cabot) has said the vote could come next week.
It has to be resolved before the budget, English added.
