Sen. Bryan King, Rep. Michael John Gray Discuss Private Option, Breakup Of DHS

Elected officials on both sides of the aisle have concerns with the current state of Arkansas’ Medicaid program and private option, but they are hoping for different outcomes from a legislative panel studying reforms.

State Sen. Bryan King (R-Green Forest) and House Minority Leader Rep. Michael John Gray (D-Augusta) were part of a roundtable discussion on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics with Roby Brock, which airs on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on KATV Ch. 7.

After the most recent report from consultants with The Stephen Group, Sen. King said the private option shouldn’t be renewed.

“When you look at Medicaid, it should be for the elderly, children and the truly disabled not for able-bodied working age adults,” said King, who claims that eligible citizens are rejecting work opportunities to keep their incomes low in order to gain private option insurance.

King said the number of out-of-state and deceased private option recipients that The Stephen Group report revealed gives great pause for concern. “You have 42,000 people that have out-of-state addresses, you have dead people on the private option … Somebody in every state in the union is on Arkansas Medicaid. I mean, that’s unacceptable.”

Gray said the private option should be maintained. Despite the relatively new program, Gray said the shortcomings can be fixed and the program can still serve a public need.

“I think with the Governor’s budget and the plan we have and the fact that over a quarter-million Arkansans are enjoying insurance [along with] rural hospitals, this is not just about health care – it’s about economic development and work in our rural areas. In some form, within the budget, the private option should continue,” he said.

The Stephen Group report and numerous legislative hearings this year have highlighted the unwieldy nature of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS). Director John Selig just announced his resignation by year’s end after a summer of disclosures regarding cost overruns on agency contracts. Gov. Hutchinson and political observers have commented on a need to pay the top administrator of the agency a figure more competitive with private sector salaries in the field.

Both legislators agreed that DHS may need to be broken up into smaller agencies to better support the missions of its many divisions.

“One of the bills I have on doing re-determination, it separates out to a separate agency. You don’t need those type people reporting to the same people that administer the program. They need to be independent people that do the re-determinations,” King said.

“I’m not opposed to breaking it up, but for a different reason,” Gray said. “I think if you’re going to break it up, you can put the person who is in charge of this at a level where he can get higher pay… I think one of the advantages to breaking it up is being able to pay them a little more to do it.”

You can watch the full conversation from this week’s Talk Politics roundtable in the video below.