Former President Bill Clinton on Friday extolled the virtues of people working together to improve society and praised Gov. Mike Beebe for working in a bipartisan fashion to help Arkansas lead the nation in cutting the share of its population without health insurance.
In a wide-ranging speech of nearly 40 minutes before more than 200 people attending a luncheon at the Southern Governors' Association annual meeting in Little Rock, Clinton said that "we have to have inclusive economics, inclusive politics" and work together in the public, private and nongovernmental sectors.
"Every place in America, every place in the world [where] there is positive networks of cooperation, good things are happening," he said. "Everywhere in the world [that] people spend all their time fighting and trying to get a bigger piece of a smaller pie, good things are not happening. This is not rocket science.
"We are living in a breathtaking moment of possibility and, if we blow it, shame on us."
Clinton said he's proud of Beebe's bipartisan efforts to take advantage of the federal Medicaid dollars made available under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to cut the state's uninsured population from 22.5 percent last year to 12.4 percent through midyear this year, the largest drop in the nation.
The expansion of the Medicaid program, approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature last year, extends coverage to adults with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $16,105 for an individual or $32,913 for a family of four.
More than 160,000 Arkansans have enrolled in private health plans through the private option program, according to the state Department of Human Services.
The federal government will pay the full cost of covering the newly eligible enrollees until 2017, when states will begin paying 5 percent of the cost. The state's share then will rise each year until it reaches 10 percent in 2020.
Clinton also praised what Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat from Kentucky, accomplished with his state's online marketplace offering health insurance plans.
Kentucky had the second-largest drop in percentage of uninsured adults, according to the same Gallup Inc. survey that ranked Arkansas with the largest decrease in the portion of uninsured. Kentucky's uninsured population fell 8.5 percentage points, from 20.4 percent to 11.9 percent, according to Gallup.
"In both cases, we have practical solutions to a genuine challenge," he said. "Both of these efforts are going to keep a lot of rural hospitals open."
Among other things, "they give us a chance to try models of health care which are based more on pay for performance than a pay for procedure so we move to a health outcome-based system and not just an input driven system," Clinton said.
Gallup reported nearly two weeks ago that Arkansas went from having the second-highest rate of uninsured adults in the country, behind only Texas, to being tied with New Hampshire at No. 22 in the percentage of adults who reported having insurance.
Clinton later attended a state Democratic Party fundraiser at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock. Tickets to the fundraiser cost $250 per person. Party spokesman Lizzy Price said about 250 people attended the fundraiser.
Puerto Rico Gov. Garcia Padilla, Virgin Islands Gov. John deJongh and Beshear were the only other governors at the association's luncheon Friday.
Beebe said Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley was expected to arrive later Friday.
At a news conference, Beebe, who is the outgoing chairman of the association, said the association's next chairman, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, "had to cancel [attending the meeting] because his hands are full trying to defuse a situation outside of St. Louis."
Beebe said Nixon "is where he should be, doing the job he should be doing and apparently doing it very, very well."
Nixon decided Thursday to stay in his state to oversee its response to several days of violence and protests ignited in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson by an officer's fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, his office said.
The association represents 16 Southern states and two territories, said Charlotte Cole, a spokesman. The association is a bipartisan nonprofit group
The association usually expects between six and 10 governors to attend its annual meetings, but this year 10 of the association's 16 states have gubernatorial elections in November, she said.
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the state is chipping in $120,000 in rainy-day funds to help pay for the cost of this year's annual meeting. Cole said she didn't have an estimated total cost of the meeting, which started Thursday and runs through Sunday.
The association's annual budget averages about $1 million, and she estimated that the cost of the annual meeting averages about 30 percent or $300,000 of its annual budget "as a rule of thumb." The association is financed through corporate members, state dues, conference revenue, other contributions and fees, and interest, according to its annual reports.
Metro on 08/16/2014