Arkansas Republicans consider unusual health-care stand
BY ANDREW DEMILLO Associated Press
Friday, December 14, 2012
12/14/12 at 5:38 AM
Read the Tulsa World continuing coverage of the health care law.Original Print Headline: Arkansas GOP weighs deal to fund Medicaid
LITTLE ROCK - Like their counterparts in other southern states, Arkansas Republicans denounced "Obamacare" during this year's election campaign and called for its repeal. But now that they've won control of the Legislature for the first time in 138 years, GOP lawmakers are considering something that would be anathema to conservatives elsewhere - expanding government health care.
Instead of rejecting outright the idea of expanding the Medicaid program for the poor - an optional part of the new health insurance system - Arkansas lawmakers are exploring ways of adding up to 250,000 low-income residents to the rolls, which already include a fourth of the state's population.
"It's a one-time opportunity to strive for complete coverage and catch up to the richer states," said State Surgeon General Joe Thompson, who is pushing for the expansion. "It is not fair that a working mom in Arkansas could be disadvantaged in the same way that if she were in Maine, she'd be advantaged."
The legislative effort may fall short. Republicans are seeking more flexibility to contain Medicaid's costs, which the federal government and states jointly pay, and the Obama administration has ruled out some possibilities. Also, the move would require the support of three-fourths of the state House and Senate.
"I'm not naive about the fact that some of them campaigned against it and wouldn't change their mind no matter what," said Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who supports the expansion. "It's just a question of how many."
But the fact that the idea is under active consideration reflects a state where Republican dominance and strict partisan ideology haven't been entrenched for years - unlike the states around Arkansas - and where many working families subsist on modest incomes. Supporters hope the effort could produce a hybrid approach that could work in politically and fiscally conservative places.
"I think from the liberal and progressive side, people want to see more people covered by Medicaid. From the conservative side, people are worried about the long-term financial risk to the state," said incoming Senate President Michael Lamoureux, a Republican, adding, "There's a rare opportunity to couple the two."
In Arkansas, where chicken processors, trucking companies and discount stores are major low-wage employers, that decision would affect about a quarter million people making less than roughly $15,000 a year and families below about $31,000.
Families who would miss out on the new coverage are calling on the Legislature to find a way to include them.
"I pay my taxes, and my taxes go to the federal government, and I'll be basically paying taxes for people in other states to have the expansion when I can't get it myself," said Claudia Reynolds-LeBlanc of Hot Springs, a part-time retail worker in her 50s who earns $20,000 a year. Her 12-year-old son is covered under a children's health program, but she hasn't had insurance since 2000.
Republicans in Arkansas say the expansion might work if they can require co-pays from some beneficiaries, mandate drug tests, impose stiffer penalties for fraud and use other measures to limit expenses.
