The House of Representatives is expected to vote for the fifth time today on a funding bill for the state’s private-option program, House Speaker Davy Carter said Monday.
The bill, which failed to pass the House in four previous votes this session, authorizes the use of $915 million in federal Medicaid dollars to buy private health insurance for more than 100,000 poor Arkansans.
Carter, R-Cabot, said he would be meeting with members again this morning but he thought there was enough support for the measure to pass.
“It’s just time to get this addressed and resolved. We still have a lot of bills that are still in [the] Joint Budget [Committee]. We still have the Revenue Stabilization Act to draft and to work on. There’s just a lot of stuff that we need to get done. It’s really past the point where we should have already been,” Carter said.
The House convened for about 15 minutes Monday to vote on amendments, but with only 71 members present, no appropriation bills could be approved. Funding bills require a three-fourths vote - or 75 members - to pass the 100-member House.
The expanded Medicaid program extends private-option eligibility to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level - for example, $16,105 for an individual and $32,913 for a family of four.
Supporters of the private option have said that ending funding for the program would strip health insurance from tens of thousands of people who have recently enrolled in insurance plans. Opponents argue that the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will add to the national debt and that the state will not be able to afford the 10 percent cost of the program that it will be required to pick up beginning in 2020.
The state Department of Human Services has said 127,051 Arkansans have been approved for coverage under the expanded Medicaid program, or just more than half of the 250,000 who were estimated to be eligible for it. Of those who have been approved for coverage, 93,966 have been enrolled, according to the most recent figures released by the department.
Rep. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, who has been opposed to the private option, said he was “remaining open-minded” about the vote and that he and several members would be discussing the issue going into today.
Hammer said the “sticking point” for some members who have asked for an enrollment period for the program has been whether people who miss the sign-up period would end up on traditional Medicaid. But he said adding those people to the Medicaid rolls would not necessarily meet the opponents’ goals.
“Sometimes you try to fix something, but you break it,” Hammer said.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 03/04/2014