Gov. Asa Hutchinson says a plan aimed at allowing him to reinstate Arkansas’ hybrid Medicaid expansion if it’s de-funded is the best chance lawmakers have at quickly resolving a budget standoff over the program. Hutchinson told members of the Legislative Black Caucus the approach is a unique solution to the budget standoff over the program, which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for the poor. At least two of the 10 Senate Republicans opposed to the expansion said they’d vote for the Medicaid budget with the defunding provision, even if it opens the door for Hutchinson to reinstate the program.
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A legislative committee deadlocked on the backup plan Thursday after the Medicaid budget bill with the expansion funding fell two votes short of the 27 needed for passage in the Senate.
After Wednesday’s vote, the bill now goes to the Arkansas House of Representatives.
Republican Sen. Missy Irvin, who voted to block the Medicaid expansion last week, supported the amended version in committee. The approach also faces resistance from Democrats, who say they’re wary of voting to defund a program they’ve fought to keep.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Hutchinson said he is “confident that the bipartisan approach that achieved success in the Senate will provide momentum for this strategy for funding Arkansas Works as it heads to the House floor tomorrow”. The Republican lawmaker says Hutchinson could veto that provision, effectively funding the hybrid expansion if the governor’s veto is upheld by a majority of the Legislature. But the Legislature still has to approve the Medicaid bill funding the program. The Legislature recessed until Tuesday, and legislative leaders said they hoped to use the long weekend to find a way forward. It also includes a provision to ensure that the entire Medicaid budget isn’t jeopardized if a court rules against Hutchinson’s promised line-item veto. I talked to Senator Hester at length Tuesday afternoon and he did float one possible part of this package, giving the governor authority to implement asset testing as a condition of Medicaid expansion coverage if it’s ever approved by federal Medicaid officials.
More than 267,000 low-income people have obtained insurance under Arkansas’ current Medicaid expansion program since it was created in 2013 as an alternative to the expansion of Medicaid rolls proposed under the federal Affordable Care Act. “When I presented the agenda, I could not have been more clear what was going to happen”, he said.
Arkansas Works would continue, with some changes and a new name, the state’s Medicaid expansion program known as the private option.
The House voted 98-0 to approve the General Appropriation Act, which funds expenses of the Legislature and the judicial branch, and sent the bill to the House.
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Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola, proposed adding special language to HB 1052 that would transfer $1 million from the state land commissioner’s office to public libraries to replace a $1 million cut to library funding that the Legislature approved a year ago.
