Gov. Hutchinson speaks with Sen. Cotton on healthcare bill, worried about ‘massive cost-shift’

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday (June 21) said he spoke to U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., before leaving for Europe about a possible draft of the Trump administration’s healthcare bill the Senate is expected to unveil tomorrow.

Cotton is said to be one of the key negotiators in closed-door meetings to overhaul the Affordable Care Act and make dramatic cuts to Medicaid. A few weeks ago, Cotton told Talk Business & Politics that Medicaid would be a critical piece of the healthcare puzzle. He also said reforms will be targeted towards recent expansions of the popular program and bringing down costs, similar to efforts being pushed in Arkansas.

“We’re not trying to rush things through. We’re not operating on shortened timelines or artificial deadlines. We’re trying to make sure that we get healthcare reform right,” Cotton said. “I think we can coalesce around a solution that will ultimately get 50 votes and that will improve our healthcare system and it’ll certainly be an improvement over Obamacare.”

In his conversation with Cotton, Hutchinson said they talked in detail about how the Arkansas senator is approaching healthcare and offered his personal input concerning what Arkansas has done at the state level.

Gov. Hutchinson changed the “Private Option” system under former Gov. Mike Beebe to “Arkansas Works.” Arkansas Works uses federal Medicaid dollars under the Affordable Care Act to purchase private health insurance for individuals with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level. It was created in 2013 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states had the option of expanding their Medicaid populations. Instead of doing that, Arkansas received a waiver from the Obama administration allowing it to purchase that insurance through the private markets. It has been funded almost entirely by the federal government until this year when the state began picking up 5% of the tab. That number grows over time to 10% by 2020.

The governor also said he was anxious to see what the U.S. Senate will come up with and how it differs from the House version that has been largely panned by Democrats and Republicans.

“I think there’s a big question mark as to how the Senate is going to reach a majority to pass this bill,” the governor said. “I emphasized to him of course our reforms that are already in the works and what we applied for with the (Trump) administration and how that needs to set a model for the country.”

Hutchinson continued: “And I hope whatever they do fits in with that and doesn’t undercut it in any way. My message to (Cotton) was that we’ve got to continue the federal-state partnership and we can’t have a massive cost-shift to the states that moves us in terms of our healthcare access in Arkansas.”

In anticipation of the Senate’s healthcare legislation, the AARP sent out email communications to its Arkansas members asking them to contact Sen. Cotton.

“First, the House passed a hasty, devastating health care bill that would cost older Americans thousands. Now the Senate could take up their own version as soon as next week – but despite an imminent vote, they won’t even show us what’s in the bill,” the AARP said. “Send your letter now and demand that Sen. Cotton reject any health care bill that contains these harmful policies.”

Few details are publicly known about the Senate plan. The Senate has come under criticism for its closed-door meetings, sometimes from members of the majority party.

“Healthcare is such an important thing, I think we should’ve debated it in open, in committee hearings,” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a report by Politico. “If you do it on one side only, what you’re setting yourself up for is failure.”