Health Care Roundtable: Open Minds On Governor’s Plan

A key freshman legislative leader and two industry representatives were optimistic that a solution could be fashioned to wind down the private option and create a longer-term solution to health care coverage in Arkansas, after Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s major policy speech Thursday at UAMS.

Rep. Laurie Rushing, a Hot Springs Republican and leader of the bipartisan 40-member House Freshmen Caucus, was part of a Talk Business & Politics panel discussion with QualChoice CEO Mike Stock and Arkansas Hospital Association CEO Bo Ryall.

On Thursday, Gov. Asa Hutchinson outlined his vision for health care reform in Arkansas. He called for renewed funding of the private option through Dec. 2016, but called on a legislative task force to provide recommendations to wind the program down and offer new concepts for health coverage policy in Arkansas.

Rushing, who campaigned against the private option in 2014, said Hutchinson “gave us the leadership we need.”

“I was one of 20 freshmen who campaigned against the private option, for it to come to an end. And I think this is the beginning of a solution to work towards it working better for everybody,” Rushing said.

“You can’t go in and we couldn’t shut it down tomorrow,” she added. “If he [Hutchinson] had come in yesterday and said we’re going to shut it down Monday, I want you to shut it down Monday, we’re going to run it through, you know that’s not feasible either.”

Stock said Hutchinson’s speech was a “pretty pragmatic solution, kind of the best of both worlds.”

“It allows the status quo to stay in place, but yet it gives us time to step back and re-evaluate and decide what’s the best solution long-term.”

Stock said his health insurance company wouldn’t have much of a role in the social dimensions of the private option debate, but from an economic perspective he hopes to provide input in advance of 2017, when states could have more flexibility under the Affordable Care Act.

“From my perspective in the private sector, I think what we can bring to the table is: how’s the best way to make this work economically.”

Ryall noted the statistics that his member hospitals have seen since the private option launched. The program that now serves about 200,000 Arkansans has led to a 47% drop in uninsured patients at Arkansas hospitals. He also said the number of uninsured Arkansans has fallen 10% since the program’s implementation.

“We’re supportive of that vision,” Ryall said of Hutchinson’s speech. “I think he gave it an open end and talked about we’re going to have a discussion about health care reform, the private option, and we’re going to have something totally new. It may have some concepts of the private option, it may not. It will have some new components, so it’s an open-ended discussion that he’s going to have.”

Watch the full roundtable discussion in the video below.