SUGGESTED LEGISLATION: Termination of Obamacare Medicaid Expansion in Arkansas (Private Option)
CFA’s Suggested Legislation
CFA draft legislation would end Arkansas’ participation in Obamacare Medicaid Expansion. The current form of Arkansas’ Medicaid Expansion is called the Private Option. The draft ends the program at the end of the day on December 31, 2015. After that date Arkansas would no longer be a Medicaid Expansion state.
The proposed legislation requires the Department of Human Services to amend its State Medicaid Plan to reflect that the Arkansas is terminating its participation in Medicaid Expansion on December 31, 2015.
The proposed legislation also requires DHS to notify enrollees that the program is ending.
[Read CFA’s proposed legislation to end Arkansas’ participation in Medicaid Expansion.]
Explanation
Arkansas legislators balked at passing Obamacare Medicaid Expansion in 2013 until it was rebranded and passed as the Arkansas “Private Option.” The Private Option is nothing more than an expensive version of Medicaid Expansion.
The federal government limits what states can do under Medicaid Expansion. None of the changes allowed in any state change the character of Medicaid Expansion. It is time not only to repeal the “Private Option”, but to get Arkansas out of any version of Medicaid Expansion under Obamacare (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).
- Regular Medicaid was designed to help Arkansas’ most vulnerable citizens. Medicaid Expansion is different. It primarily targets able bodied working age people without children. Nearly half of the target population do not work at all.
- Arkansas’ Medicaid Expansion will directly compete for funds already needed for education, law enforcement, prisons, and to serve our disabled citizens and other citizens who are among our most vulnerable. Arkansas is fast approaching the time when it must start paying a part of the cost of Medicaid Expansion. The cost will devastate Arkansas’ budget or necessitate even higher Arkansas taxes.
- There is no reasonable way to work within Medicaid Expansion to substantially improve it or to target specific groups for assistance. Obamacare and Obamacare regulations were written too restrictively to allow real change.