Study sees new cash, jobs from health law, Medicaid

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas would see $550 million in new cash, more than 6,000 new jobs and 2,300 fewer deaths if the state chooses to expand Medicaid and implements the insurance exchange required by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a Rand Corp. study released Thursday.

The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement paid about $27,000 to Rand for the study, which broke down the economic benefits for all of the state’s 75 counties. The biggest winners were Pulaski, Washington and Sebastian counties. The counties that would see the least benefit were Montgomery, Nevada and Perry.

The center’s director, Dr. Joe Thompson, also the state’s surgeon general, has been a vocal supporter of expanding Medicaid and implementing the exchange.

Craig Wilson, the center’s director of access to quality care, said the study was the first to incorporate the economic benefits of the insurance exchange as well as Medicaid expansion. The model was based on 2016, the last year of full federal support for expansion. After that, the state would assume an increasing share of costs for adding up to 250,000 people to Medicaid.

Wilson said the study wasn’t intended to be a political document.

“It seeks to provide good, solid facts and information,” Wilson said. He said he believed Arkansas was the first state to engage the Rand Corp. to study the effects of the Affordable Care Act. The savings to the state tracks closely with earlier estimates by the state’s Department of Human Services, which estimated savings of $630 million by 2021 if expansion was approved by the Legislature.

Supporters of expansion cheered the results of the study. Currently, Medicaid is a $5 billion state and federally funded program serving about 780,000 Arkansans. The exchange is estimated to enroll about 211,000 in the state. The study estimated that the expansion and exchange would provide about 400,000 state residents with health coverage.

“It will provide a financial boost to the state as well as being a good thing for the health of our citizens,” said Anna Strong, health-policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

Republicans, who control the Legislature, have been leery of expanding Medicaid, although recently GOP leaders have suggested a deal might be possible. The insurance exchange also has sparked partisan debate.

Two Republican members of the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee didn’t immediately return requests for comment Thursday.

Rep. Greg Leding, a Fayetteville Democrat on the committee, said the Rand study, coming after the Human Services Department estimates on the economic boost from Medicaid expansion, might help sway reluctant lawmakers. Expansion requires 75 votes in the House and 27 votes in the Senate.

“I do think that it helps solidify what I personally believe is a really strong case economically to make sure this gets done,” Leding said.

Currently, the state’s partnership exchange with the federal government doesn’t require insurance companies to offer exchange coverage in each county. Wilson said that if some companies end up with options under the exchange, the economic benefit wouldn’t be as great.