Instead of expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance to primarily the working poor, Arkansas draws down those funds from the federal government to help people purchase private health insurance policies.
Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, argued on Tuesday that senators should not vote to expand Medicaid, which would provide health care coverage to an estimated 300,000 Mississippians.
But then Blackwell went on to say that “there might be some alternative to Medicaid expansion for the state to consider.” At the time the program was enacted, Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe believed the Republican-controlled Legislature would be more willing to go the private insurance route. The program was approved on the federal level by the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama.
A 2018 study found that the Arkansas program would be a net gain to the state’s coffers through at least 2021 because of the decrease in the amount of uncompensated care that hospitals had to provide. A search for more recent studies has not been successful.
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