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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Gov. Asa Hutchinson called on lawmakers Thursday to continue Arkansas' compromise Medicaid expansion through the end of next year while a proposed task force looks at the future of health care in the state.
The Republican governor said he'll push for reauthorizing the "private option," which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for the poor. More than 213,000 people are enrolled in the program, crafted two years ago as an alternative to the Medicaid expansion envisioned under the federal health law.
"It is time to close this chapter and start a new one," Hutchinson said in a speech at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. "It is a new day for health care in Arkansas and I pledge to work with you to find the right solution for all of Arkansas. While we're turning the page and beginning a new effort, our innovative efforts in Medicaid reform will continue."
Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have agreed to expand their Medicaid program under President Barack Obama's health care law. Arkansas was the first state to win approval for such a hybrid plan, which cleared the way for other Republican-leaning states to negotiate similar compromises.
Hutchinson remained mum throughout his campaign about whether he would support continuing the program. He has acknowledged its benefit to hospitals, which have wound up caring for fewer uninsured patients, but said he's worried about Arkansas' eventual share of the costs — 5 percent in 2017 and 10 percent by 2020.
Hutchinson noted the estimated cost to the state when it begins paying for 10 percent is nearly $222 million.
Reauthorizing the program requires three-fourths support in the House and Senate, a threshold barely cleared last year and complicated by the addition of several opponents to the Legislature after the November election.
Hutchinson said he wants the task force to issue its recommendations by the end of this year.
He also wants to pursue changes to Medicaid to encourage participants to look for work and incentives to seek preventive care. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, who met with Hutchinson last week, told the governor in a letter dated Thursday that she looked forward to working with him on "a potential broad block of changes that could lower costs and improve access and quality in ways that best meet the needs of your state."
Hospital officials said they were relieved about Hutchinson's approach.
"The proposal to continue the current waiver through the end of 2016 clearly provides stability that has been absent up until the present," UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn said.
The expansion has sharply divided Republicans who became the majority party in Arkansas over the past three elections primarily by running against the health care law. Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, who chairs the Senate Health committee and is a vocal opponent of the private option, viewed Hutchinson's plan as a path toward ending the program.
"I think you could in a sense call this a wind down," Bledsoe, R-Rogers, said.
Democrats, however, said they didn't view the plan as phasing out the program and said they were encouraged Hutchinson didn't call for capping enrollment or other new restrictions.
"I don't think this is in any way an indication that there is an end to the private option on the horizon," said House Minority Leader Eddie Armstrong, D-North Little Rock.
Freshman Republican Sen. Scott Flippo said he was willing to study the issue further, but that his position on the private option hadn't changed since he campaigned against it last year.
"I still feel the same way," he said. "I'm against Medicaid expansion."
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Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
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