Our View

Our View

Now is the time to get this taken care of

This special session on funding Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s Medicaid expansion plan is proving to be amazing in that it reveals the irrational extremes in political party politics that panders to ridiculous selfserving causes. There is absolutely no doubt that the majority of intelligent Arkansas conservatives recognize the liberal philosophies of socialized government health care but by the same token realize and clearly understand that simply abolishing the governor’s plan and telling the well-over 250,000 “poor” Arkansans they no longer have medical coverage without some type of acceptable alternative is absolutely asinine.

Furthermore, the handful of lawmakers taking a stand to jeopardize funding for Arkansas Works shows how shallow minded they are in understanding the complexity of what is going on around them.

Since its creation in 2013, the private option, Arkansas’ form of Obamacare, has used federal Medicaid money to subsidize private health insurance for more than 267,000 low-income Arkansans and has reduced uncompensated care costs at hospitals across the state.

These shallow-minded politicians opposing Gov.

Hutchinson’s plan to continue health care for the poor while also intelligently taking steps to force able-bodied recipients to become self-dependent, seem to forget that before the private option plan was approved under former Gov. Mike Beebe the state’s ability to fund its share of Medicaid for the poor was in serious jeopardy. The federally subsidized private option was the state’s salvation to its ability to provide funding for Medicaid.

Hutchinson has made it vividly clear that ending Medicaid expansion would create a budget hole of more than $100 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

These opposing politicians must know that beginning the first of the year the state will be forced to pay 5 percent of the Medicaid expenditures that right now is being fully subsidized by the federal government. And, by 2020 Arkansas will be forced to come up with 20 percent of the Medicaid costs.

Okay, let’s just say for the sake of argument that the funding is blocked. The alternatives are fairly easy to understand even for the most shallow-minded politician. One way would be to call for additional taxes on the already tax-stressed citizens. The other likely possibility is to make drastic revenue cuts in state government which would include the public school budget, tax dollars for new highways and roads, reduction of services to children services, senior citizens and much more.

Hutchinson has made it clear that under his plan that if Arkansas Works is not funded, that means there will be “real-life consequences.” The governor says his plan is projected to generate $750 million over the next 10 years and allow the state to provide matching funds for about $2 billion in federal highway money over the same period.

Furthermore, ending Medicaid expansion would create a budget hole of more than $100 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, so the option to use surplus funds and general revenue for highways would simply disappear, along with money for other state demands.

This political showboating is completely absurd based on what the governor is wanting to do for the majority of Arkansans.