AARP: State needs more Medicaid

LITTLE ROCK — A powerful national lobbying group for older Americans cited Arkansas on Monday as one of two states where it is “ramping up” a national campaign to expand Medicaid.

In Arkansas, AARP has bought advertising space in three of the state’s largest newspapers this month, said Herb Sanderson, associate state director for advocacy for AARP Arkansas.

In a news release Monday, the group said that expansion will drive down health costs by increasing preventive care, cutting down on emergency room visits and reducing hospital crowding.

Next week, several hundred AARP members will visit the Capitol to show their support for enlarging the number of people eligible for Medicaid, Sanderson said.

State officials have said that expanding Medicaid under new federal rules will add about 250,000 to the rolls of the health-care program for the poor, elderly and children.

An AARP study found that about 53,081 Arkansans between 45 and 64 would qualify for Medicaid coverage through expansion, Sanderson said. AARP has about 325,000 members in the state, he said.

“It’s a real issue for our members, for those who cannot buy health insurance or are concerned that the rural hospitals will close,” said Sanderson. “It’s a real issue to drive an extra 30 to 60 miles with your left arm tingling.”

So far, the organization has purchased advertisements in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Jonesboro Sun and the Southwest Times-Record.

The half-page advertisement that ran in the Feb. 19 Democrat-Gazette states in bold type: “If you lose your job ... you shouldn’t lose access to health care too.”

The ad also urges readers to call an 800 number to tell their legislator to back expansion of Medicaid.

Arkansas supporters of enlarging the $5 billion program that covers about 780,000 people welcomed AARP’s support in the debate.

“AARP’s effort is a boost anytime the motivated members of that organization get behind an important effort like this,” said Ray Hanley, a former state Medicaid director and the president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care. Hanley is leading a coalition of expansion supporters.

Sanderson declined to say how much his group is spending. A recent AARP news release said that the group is working toward expansion in “more than forty” states.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, announced his support for expansion at an event this month hosted in part by AARP. Michigan is the other state, along with Arkansas, that is getting special attention in AARP’s national campaign for Medicaid expansion.

Last week, Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, met with U.S. Health and Human Services Director Kathleen Sebelius in Washington, D.C., to discuss Republican ideas for expansion, including allowing individuals earning somewhere below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or $15,415, to be covered under the state’s health-insurance exchange by private carriers instead of being enrolled in Medicaid.

Beebe hasn’t yet released details of the meeting, but said he was encouraged. He also said Medicaid expansion is more flexible than he thought.

AARP doesn’t have a position on a greater role for private insurance in expansion, Sanderson said.

“We’re open to discussion on how that ends up looking. We want to see what we can get done that would be in the best interest of Arkansans,” Sanderson said.

States can choose to expand their Medicaid programs as allowed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. A U.S. Supreme Court decision last year made that choice optional.

The federal government will pay the full tab for expansion until 2017. By 2020, the states will shoulder 10 percent of the burden.

One Republican state senator who has been involved in the expansion talks said AARP’s lobbying efforts will join an already loud chorus of those for and against expansion.

“Lawmakers make up their minds based on information based on data,” said David Sanders, who represents parts of Conway, Faulkner Pulaski, Perry and Van Buren counties.