As the May 20 primary election approaches, I’ve become increasingly interested in the District 17 race for the Arkansas Senate. That’s where businessman Scott Flippo of Mountain Home and the mayor of that city, David Osmon, are taking on state Rep. John Burris of my hometown of Harrison.

I see this as very likely a pivotal race when it comes to the future of the controversial “private option” health insurance program, Arkansas’ version of Medicaid expansion (and which Burris voted to approve for our citizens during the last legislative session.)

Don’t have space here to rehash this controversy, but simply to note that voters across District 17’s three counties (Boone, Marion and Baxter) will have a chance to either place their stamp of approval on Burris’ vote, which he defends as best for Arkansans; or Osmon, who appears to say the private option is not actually Obamacare but it’s darned close; and Flippo, who calls it Obamacare pure and simple and he’d vote to end the private option.

Nic Horton, for purposes of his Arkansas Project Report, grilled each candidate on various issues including the simple, yet specific, question: “Is the ‘private’ option Obamacare or part of Obamacare?”

“Yes, it is most certainly Obamacare,” said Flippo. “The private option utilizes federal Medicaid dollars to expand coverage to individuals up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The plan meets the new standards as outlined by the Obamacare law. It furthers our exponential federal debt and passes on job-killing taxes and regulations to all businesses across our state. Many have said there was no option, and this was Arkansas’ way of not implementing Obamacare and providing for those in need. I would argue that not only did [the Legislature] implement Obamacare, they further locked an entire generation into government assistance. Rather than providing a hand up by creating an environment in our state that is business-friendly,they provided a handout.”

Horton said Burris responded to his question without offering a definite yes or no: “[Obamacare] mandated states to expand their Medicaid programs up to the 138 percent [of the federal poverty level]. The Supreme Court declared this mandate unconstitutional. However, it still allowed the federal government to raise our taxes, cut Medicare for our seniors, tax our businesses and individuals, and mandate minimum benefit levels for all insurance policies. All told, approximately $1.25 billion is confiscated out of the pockets of Arkansas citizens annually as a result …, beginning this year. The Arkansas Private Option was passed in an attempt to regain control of that money, while simultaneously reforming our entitlement systems rather than grow them, as originally required … It protects the state from the instability created by passage of the ACA.”

Osmon answered this way, Horton says: “No, I believe the ‘private option,’ as it is structured in Arkansas, is an adaptation to the Affordable Care Act. Until we can rid ourselves of [it], we must live with it, as best we can.”

With feelings running as strong as they do in the Ozarks over Obamacare, and the costs of the private option to Arkansas already far exceeding projections, I’m betting this election has become a referendum on Horton’s question between the legislator who voted for the private option and those opposing it.

Horton, admittedly no fan of the private option, says it’s clear to him that “expanding Medicaid eligibility as outlined in the Obamacare law and using Obamacare dollars to provide insurance for people on the Obamacare exchange is … Obamacare.If that’s not Obamacare, I don’t know what is.” In my tiny mind, Horton does make a valid point.

Considering the private option finally passed the Arkansas Senate with a vote to spare, the results of this race could have statewide consequences for the health care and financial future of our state and our children. Living in Fayetteville, I’ll have no vote to cast here, but I did listen to all three candidates speak their piece for about a minute each during Boone County’s Reagan Day Dinner in Harrison last week, where Arkansas’ GOP Chairman Doyle Webb offered this logical slogan: “We can’t become what we have sought to replace.”Kudos to commission

BLT sandwiches (extra bacon) all around for our state’s Pollution Control and Ecology Commission, which set the administrative wheels in motion in response to petitions hoping to change existing regulation on large-scale swine operations being permitted in our Buffalo National River watershed. The Department of Environmental Quality in 2012 wrongheadedly permitted the controversial Cargill-supported hog factory at Mount Judea along Big Creek, a major tributary of the national river.

Also, commissioners have voted to impose a 180-day ban on new permits in the watershed. Such a ban is what’s needed permanently in this karst-riddled region of God’s Country. The commission announced a June 17 public hearing in Harrison and encouraged written comments to the department.

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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected]. Read his blog at mikemastersonsmessenger.com.

Editorial, Pages 15 on 04/29/2014