Private Option Architects – No problem with quick removal of enrollees from coverage.
If Arkansas’ Obamacare Medicaid Expansion (Private Option) is repealed, is it unfair to end coverage for people who are already enrolled? This is a non-issue. The architects of the Private Option already decided the issue by what they wrote into the law. The architects of the Private Option made sure to say it is appropriate to provide for the removal of coverage of current enrollees. Not only did the architects decide it is a reasonable possibility to take people off of Medicaid Expansion, they actually strongly emphasized this possibility by including in their bill a provision making enrollees sign a statement acknowledging that the enrollee understands coverage can be withdrawn rapidly.
Here is what the architects included in the Arkansas law because they wanted to be able to quickly end the program
(i) An eligible individual enrolled in the program shall affirmatively acknowledge that:
(1) The program is not a perpetual federal or state right or a guaranteed entitlement;
(2) The program is subject to cancellation upon appropriate notice; and
(3) The program is not an entitlement program.
The intent of the law could not be any clearer.
Two of the three “architects” of Arkansas’s Obamacare Medicaid Expansion (Private Option) are still in the legislature – Senator Jonathan Dismang and Senator David Sanders. We think they meant what they said, and weren’t just trying to pull the wool over your eyes to get the law passed.