LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday that he supports a plan for the state to partner with the federal government to set up and run a federally mandated health-insurance exchange.
Beebe said in his weekly radio address and statement that the partnership is a way for the state to have more involvement in the exchange, since lawmakers blocked a bill that would have allowed the state to run the exchange itself.
He also said the partnership, and the accompanying grant money the state has applied for, will help make joining a federally run exchange less expensive for the state.
“This partnership will allow us to apply for federal money that will permit us to meet our legal requirements using as little state funding as possible. It will also help to ensure that, as more Arkansans sign up for health-insurance programs, the premium taxes collected on those policies remain in Arkansas and don’t go to Washington.”
The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires that every state have a health-insurance exchange - an online pool where people can shop for insurance plans - by Jan. 1, 2014.
The federal government will establish exchanges for states that have not demonstrated progress in setting up their own exchanges by Jan. 1, 2013.
What work the state should do on that exchange before the deadline and before the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the health-care overhaul law has been a matter of dispute between the state Insurance Department and some lawmakers.
Republican lawmakers have opposed efforts to set up an exchange, arguing that the state should not commit resources to it unless the law is upheld by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has set aside three days in March to hear oral arguments about the law.
The Legislature defeated a bill that would have authorized the state Insurance Department to begin setting up an exchange, and lawmakers have signaled repeatedly since then that they had not changed their minds about it.
Though the state continued for some months to do preliminary planning work, Beebe said that without legislative support, he would not use his authority to set up the exchange by executive order and would not continue applying for federal grants to plan the exchange.
Jay Bradford, the state insurance commissioner, announced earlier this month that the state would stop planning for a state-run exchange and had disbanded its planning committees.
Unless the Supreme Court overturns the health-care law or it is changed, there will be a federally run health-insurance exchange available to Arkansans.
In a Dec. 19 letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Beebe said he supported the state Insurance Department’s application for a $7.6 million grant and a proposed “cooperative agreement” to plan for the implementation of the federal exchange in the state.
Bradford said about $2.5 million of that grant will go to defray the expenses of connecting to the federal exchange - money that would otherwise have to be spent by the state.
He described the partnership program and the grant money, as a “fallback” and “a second chance to hold onto some of the regulatory aspects” of the exchange that has emerged in recent weeks as a response by the federal government to several states deciding not to develop their own exchanges.
“To put it on a scale, let’s just say, we’ll be able to do 75 percent, rather than 100 percent for Arkansans” with the partnership, as opposed to a state-run exchange.
The grant would help the state collect data and evaluate insurance companies for consumers, and give the state the resources to run the law’s patient-advocate program and oversee consumer assistance, among other functions.
A coalition of health insurance and medical groups expressed support for the partnership program in a joint news release issued Thursday.The group includes the Arkansas Hospital Association, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Delta Dental of Arkansas, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, the Independent Insurance Agents of Arkansas, and Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.
House Republican leader Rep. John Burris, R-Harrison, said he did not know much about the partnership grant but that it proved that there had been no hurry to set up a state-run exchange.
“There have been three times where Jay Bradford has screamed ‘this is the last chance.’ Yet every time it passes, there’s one more round,” he said.
“I think it absolutely proves everything we’ve been saying the whole entire time, that [Bradford] was getting bad information and that waiting was not a bad strategy.”
Burris said he thought the Legislature should play more of a role in the planning process.
In a written statement responding to Beebe’s address, the state Republican Party said Beebe was using “scare tactics” and “partisan games” to characterize their opposition to the exchange and noted that Beebe could have gone ahead with the exchange without their approval.
“While there is bipartisan opposition to setting up a health insurance exchange, we thank the Governor for giving Republicans credit for delaying the early implementation of Obamacare in Arkansas. It’s unfortunate Governor Beebe is playing partisan games and using scare tactics to give himself political cover.”
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/23/2011