Insurance queries take Hutchinson, 4 to D.C.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson plans to meet this morning in Washington with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to discuss possible changes in federally funded health-care programs, including the state's private option, Hutchinson said Thursday.

Hutchinson will be accompanied by state Senate Republican leader and Hutchinson's nephew Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs; House Public Health Welfare and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. Kelley Linck, R-Flippin; state Department of Human Services Director John Selig; and state Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe, said Hutchinson spokesman J.R. Davis.

The Republican governor declined Thursday to discuss in detail what possible waivers he'll seek from President Barack Obama's administration. But last week, Hutchinson said he believes that people with taxpayer-funded health insurance should be either working, in training or attending school.

Federal waivers would be needed to make significant changes in the state's private-option program, which provides insurance for more than 180,000 Arkansans.

Hutchinson is to give a speech Thursday on health care in Arkansas. In that address, he's expected to say whether he'll seek reauthorization of the private option, which uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans.

Hutchinson said he has talked to some other governors about their experiences in seeking waivers from the federal government, and "it is a changing climate on waivers."

"I just want to have the most current information," he said in a brief telephone interview before flying in an Arkansas State Police plane to the nation's capital. Hutchinson said the trip will help him prepare for his Thursday speech and will help him decide whether to ask the Republican-controlled controlled Legislature to reauthorize the private option.

"It is not just an executive branch decision," he said. "It's a legislative decision, and it's important that they be part of it," he said in regard to the legislators making the trip to Washington.

The private option is an issue that deeply divided Republicans on the campaign trail and during the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions.

Critics call the private option "Obamacare" because funding for the program is made available under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that was signed into law by Obama in 2010.

Supporters say the private option isn't "Obamacare" because the private-option program was created and run by Arkansans and differs substantially from the federal model. Arkansas had to get federal waivers to use federal Medicaid funds for the private-option program.

The program extends insurance coverage to adults who have incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level -- $16,105 for an individual, for instance, or $32,913 for a family of four. More than 180,000 Arkansans have enrolled in private health insurance through the private-option program, according to the state Department of Human Services.

Federal Medicaid funds will pay for 100 percent of the program until fiscal 2017, when the state will pick up 5 percent of the cost. The state's cost will gradually increase to 10 percent by fiscal 2020.

Last week, Hutchinson said in an interview that he's seeking more information about the people enrolled in the program and plans to consult with federal officials about how much flexibility they'll grant the state for "overall health care reform."

"If we are having a private-option or taxpayer-funded health insurance, people either should be working, ... in training or going to school in some fashion. Those are the incentives and help to get ahead in life and move up the economic ladder rather than an incentive to say 'Hey, my life is grand,'" Hutchinson told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last week. "This is where I want to press the limits of what kind of waivers we can get [from the federal government]."

Hutchinson said last week that 40 percent of private-option participants report having zero income.

In the 2013 and 2014 sessions, the Legislature barely reached the three-fourths vote threshold required to authorize funding for the program.

The fate of the private option is likely to hinge on the votes of newly elected lawmakers, many of them Republicans who spoke against the health care program during their campaigns.

Earlier this week, Linck said he thinks the state's private option -- which will likely be reviewed through the House committee of which he is chairman -- will survive, though it may look and operate differently by the end of the session.

Linck said Thursday that the governor, House leaders and Senate leaders have ideas about changing federally funded health care programs that they want to run past federal officials this morning.

"We want to throw some things on the wall and see what sticks and what falls off," he said in a telephone interview.

"Hopefully, we'll get everybody working on one trail instead of five or six," Linck said.

Hendren said the meeting with federal officials will be helpful.

"The purpose [of the trip] is to make certain the plan [the governor] lays out is achievable due to our partnership and cooperation with Washington," Hendren said, declining to provide additional details.

Linck voted in past years to fund the private option, while Hendren has voted against funding the program.

Senate Public Health and Labor Committee Chairman Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, who is the surgeon general's mother, said she may "have some ideas" in regard to what Hutchinson wants to do with the private option, but she hasn't discussed the matter directly with the governor, "so I'd reserve my comments until the 22nd of January when we'll all know."

The senator voted against authorizing funding for the private option in past years but said she'll wait to see what the governor proposes before deciding on how she'll vote.

"I might be open to some things," such as voting to wind down the program, Cecile Bledsoe said, adding that she's not sure what the governor will propose.

"I have a lot of confidence in the governor," she said.

Information for this article was contributed by Claudia Lauer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A section on 01/16/2015