ROGERS -- Marshallese children left out of ARKids First could get health coverage at little to no added cost to the state, but not until 2017, local legislators learned Tuesday.
Northwest Arkansas is home to an estimated 6,000 Marshallese. Marshall Islanders can legally reside in the United States after a portion of their islands were used for atomic bomb tests after World War II. As noncitizens, they weren't eligible for programs such as ARKids, which gives Medicaid health coverage to children living in poverty.
Conservative lawmakers attending a forum Tuesday on children's issues, hosted by the nonprofit Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, voiced no objections to an expansion of the ARKids program. State Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale, had been working on the issue before the latest change put more of the cost of the care into the federal budget. The forum was held at the Center for Non-Profits.
"I can't guarantee that the federal government would pay absolutely every penny of the cost of expanding the program," said Laura Kellams, Northwest Arkansas director of the advocates and organizer of Tuesday's event. "There could be administrative costs and costs of implementing the program, but the actual cost of the care would be 100 percent covered after the changes in the law."
Congress passed a Medicaid package that President Obama signed in to law on April 21. Part of that program increased the federal government's share of the cost of the Children's Health Insurance Program for children who aren't citizens but are "lawfully residing" in the United States.
"The percentage of those costs paid for by the federal government varies from state to state," Kellams said. Poorer states, in general, get a higher percentage of the program's costs reimbursed by federal taxpayers.
"Our rate was so high already that the program would now cover 100 percent of the cost of treatment here after these increases," Kellams said.
Accepting that federal reimbursement would require changes to Arkansas law, which only the Legislature can do. Getting that change will be a priority for the advocates group and its allies in the next regular legislative session in 2017, Kellams said.
Rep. Grant Hodges, R-Rogers, attended Tuesday's meeting. He was one of only 16 members of the 100-member state House to vote against extending the "private option" health care plan that accepts federal health care reform money. He said Tuesday he would not object to extending ARKids to Marshallese.
"It would give them the same benefits as other kids in Arkansas," Hodges said. "They should have those."
In other issues, the Legislature's move to cut capital gains taxes and middle-class income taxes came under fire from the audience of at least 60, mostly advocates for the poor, during a panel discussion with lawmakers. Rep. Charlie Collins, R-Fayetteville, defended the cuts and said he would work with anyone in the room to provide tax relief to the poor. Collins was a leading advocate for those cuts.
Hodges added seeking an income tax cut was the wrong target for meaningful relief for the poor. The taxes that really have the most impact on the poor are consumption taxes such as the sales tax, since a greater portion of the income of the poor goes into necessary, local purchases, he said.
"Our consumption taxes are incredibly high in relation to other states," he said.
NW News on 05/13/2015