Private Option Bills Clear House Hurdles

A pair of bills involving the funding and operation of the state’s Private Option healthcare program for the poor and uninsured were approved by the House Thursday afternoon.

The state House voted 80-16, with three voting present, to approve Senate Bill 96 and 82-16 to approve Senate Bill 101.

Senate Bill 96, sponsored by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, would end the Private Option on Dec. 31, 2016 and would create a task force to look at the healthcare issue in the state.

Senate Bill 101, sponsored by the Joint Budget Committee, was an appropriations bill that would fund the Department of Human Services, Division of Medical Services budget through June 30, 2016.

That bill, which has already passed in the Senate and now heads to the Governor’s desk, would include monies for the operation of the Private Option.

Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin, who chairs the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor committee, said the debate over the Private Option has been one of the most debated issues in the state since a secession vote during the Civil War.

Linck said the bill would help with reforming the Medicaid system in Arkansas.

Rep. Josh Miller, R-Heber Springs, who sponsored a bill Wednesday that would end the program as of June 30, 2016, said he believed representatives should live up to their campaign promises.

“You did not make campaign promises to make our colleagues and elected officials happy,” Miller, who voted no, said of the issue.

Rep. Joe Farrer, R-Austin, a cosponsor of the bill, said the bill gives the state “a chance to change healthcare in the state of Arkansas.”

Farrer said the plan would give the state flexibility, promote personal responsibility and fix Medicaid as a “broken system that has cost us billions of dollars.”

However, Rep. Laurie Rushing, R-Hot Springs, said while she was opposed to the Private Option, the bill before the House was “the only path there.”

“There is no perfect bill,” Rushing said to colleagues. “If you are waiting for a perfect bill, you will be waiting 20 years or forever because it will never happen.”

Rep. Brandt Smith, R-Jonesboro, told colleagues that he had received calls from people, ranging in age from their 30’s to a man in his 70’s, this week about the bill.

The man in his 70’s told Smith that his “integrity is on the line” with the vote, Smith said on the floor.

On SB 101, Rep. John Payton, R-Wilburn, asked legislators to hold off on approving the bill due to legislators having other budget bills to consider.

However, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said the vote on Senate Bill 101 as well as Senate Bill 96 gives legislators an opportunity to have faith in officials as well as the process.

“There is a fine line between representing our districts and leading,” Gillam said, noting he believes lawmakers should “lead responsibly but lead bold.”

“The vote in the House today on the Health Reform Task Force bill and accompanying appropriation was a bipartisan effort and represents the right step forward as we seek ways to best reform Medicaid in Arkansas,” said Gov. Asa Hutchinson. “I am grateful for the confidence that the legislature has placed in the task force and the opportunity it represents to guide the future of health care reform in Arkansas.”