Governor’s Private Option Plan Passes Panel; Bill Killing It Fails
by January 28, 2015 10:38 am 122 views
The Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee passed a bill Wednesday that would extend the private option through the end of 2016 and create a task force that would consider overall health care reform. It voted against a bill that would kill the private option outright at the end of this year.
Senate Bill 96, the Arkansas Health Care Reform Act by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, passed 6-1. Voting yes were Sen. Cecille Bledsoe, R-Rogers, the committee’s chair; Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, the vice chair; Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, one of the private option’s architects; Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View; Sen. Scott Flippo, R-Bull Shoals; and Sen. John Cooper, R-Jonesboro. Sen. Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch, voted no. Sen. Keith Ingram, D-West Memphis, was not present for the vote.
Bledsoe, Irvin, Cooper, Flippo and Hendren all have been private option opponents.
Senate Bill 144, presented by Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, R-Pocahontas, failed 3-3. It would end the program at the end of this year. Voting yes were Bledsoe, Flippo and Stubblefield. Voting no were Sanders, Flowers and Cooper. Irvin and Ingram did not vote.
Collins-Smith said after the meeting that she was somewhat surprised by the outcome but that she will talk to legislators “to see what concerns they might have and see if we can’t bring them back to the table to repeal bad policy.”
Hendren’s bill would extend the private option, which uses federal dollars through Medicaid to purchase private health insurance, through the end of 2016 but no further without legislative action. It would create a task force to consider a range of alternatives to the program.
The bill mirrors proposals made by Gov. Asa Hutchinson in a speech last Thursday at UAMS.
“I think after the governor’s speech, I think everybody realized that he’s charted probably the only path that could avoid a meltdown, so I’m glad, and it’s about what I expected,” Hendren said after the meeting.
Hendren said that legislators have a disagreement about how best to end the private option.
“The governor has expressed a desire to look at all alternatives,” he said. “I think all of us would prefer to find some way that those people don’t just get kicked to the streets, but what that’s going to look like, it’s going to have to be something that’s affordable. So what that might be? That’s what the task force is going to have to try to determine.”
The private option now enrolls about 200,000 Arkansans. Hendren was asked by Stubblefield how many more were expected to enroll. Hendren said independent actuarial firms had estimated the total number will rise to 220,000-250,000. He said that his chairmanship of a school and state employee health insurance task force had taught him that data-based projections by independent analysts are normally accurate.
Hendren said a freeze in enrollment would not be approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The argument for a cap is weaker than it was because the number of enrollees is near its projected highest number, he said.
He said the task force is needed so policymakers can have better data about how to reform the system.