Reporting was contributed by Jared Dryden.
Arkansas legislators returned to the state Capitol Tuesday to vote on an appropriation bill to continue Arkansas’ private option for a second year. The private option is an expansion that uses Medicaid funds to buy private health care for low-income Arkansas residents.
The Arkansas House of Representatives voted 70-27 with one present, five votes shy of the 75-vote supermajority needed to continue the private option. The bill is expected to eventually pass in the House as more votes come in the next few days, according to the Arkansas Times.
“We’ll vote tomorrow,” House Speaker Davy Carter said to reporters Tuesday. “The Senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow anyways, but that’s not an issue with me. We’re going to vote tomorrow regardless.”
Carter told reporters he is “100 percent confident” the private option will get the 75 votes necessary to pass.
“The reality is that there are 70 people out there, even today, that support this legislation,” Carter said. “It is the law that’s on the books. The majority of members aren’t going to just roll over and watch this appropriation get defeated. All reasonable efforts by both parties have been made to come up with a compromise.”
A subcommittee of the Joint Budget Committee approved amendments to the private option on Feb. 12. Technically added as special language, the changes would ban state spending on outreach for the Health Insurance Marketplace (including the private option), which means no advertising or direct mail, both of which were a source of success in the private option’s early days. The changes will also end a mandate on the state to provide non-emergency medical transportation, allow insurance companies to impose cost-sharing for beneficiaries between 50-100 percent of the federal poverty line and establish Health Savings Accounts as an option for beneficiaries.
Rep. Nate Bell (R-Mena) sponsored the changes and has been vocal about the need to push the amendment.
“We have a clear situation in front of us,” Bell said. “The votes are almost certainly there to not pass the private option. The votes are almost certainly not there to pass a budget bill without the private option.”
He admits that without active marketing, enrollment will likely decline.
While Gov. Mike Beebe opposes Bell’s amendment, he is willing to accept it to re-appropriate the private option. He commended Bell for not taking “the shutdown approach” saying, “at least he’s engaged and willing to talk about it.”
