LITTLE ROCK — Insurance Department officials say an unusually structured budget bill makes it easier for insurance-exchange opponents to kill the state’s partnership model.
In House Bill 1118, filed in late January, the federal “Level One Cooperative Agreement” is listed in its own section.
“The department has not seen this type of separation in the past in our budget,” Heather Haywood, exchange spokesman, said in a recent e-mail.
“What’s unusual is that Level One positions were separated, which is different from the budget listing for other federal grants in the Insurance Department funding bill,” she said, adding that the Insurance Department hasn’t received many federal grants.
Since the bill originated from the Joint Budget Committee, no sponsor is listed.
But Tuesday, the Republicans on the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee said they will wait for a committee hearing - which hasn’t been scheduled - before taking any action. GOP leaders have said the panel’s chairman, Jason Rapert, a Bigelow Republican, will likely take the lead on any action regarding the exchange.
Rapert has said he favors a federally run exchange and has expressed frustration that an $18.6 million grant funding the exchange was passed by the Democrat controlled Arkansas Legislative Council in December over GOP objections. He said in mid-January that the current Legislature needs to vote on the state-federal model.
The Big River steel mill project and other legislative issues have postponed planned hearings on the exchange’s status, but Rapert said he still wants to tackle the issue early in the session before Medicaid expansion and budget items divert lawmakers’ attention.
“My pledge is that whatever result comes from that hearing or hearings, I’ll make my decision based on that,” Rapert said.
On Tuesday, Rapert said he didn’t have a definite date set for any hearing.
In late January, he said he wasn’t aware of “any coordinated effort” to single out the $7.6 million federal grant.
If lawmakers decide to remove the appropriation for the Level One federal grant during budget discussions, the partnership model is dead.
“If we don’t have the authority to spend the federal grant, then, yes, operations and all decisions regarding the Exchange ... will fall to the federal government,” Haywood wrote. “A partnership, while providing access to federal assistance, will be run by people experienced with insurance and who know Arkansas consumers best, notby people a thousand miles away.”
Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford has been a vocal proponent of the partnership model over the past two years. He told lawmakers earlier this month in the House Insuranceand Commerce committee that the partnership model allows the state to retain control over consumer assistance and outreach efforts.
Partial state control of the exchange also allows his department to certify and monitor insurance plans offered to the 211,000 people expected to sign up when enrollment begins in October.
Coverage begins in January 2014.
So far, Arkansas and Delaware are the only states to receive conditional approval from the federal government to operate the partnership model. Several other states are considering sharing power with Washington, D.C.
Gov. Mike Beebe and Rapert haven’t had any discussions about the exchange recently, said Matt DeCample, Beebe’s spokesman. Beebe favors a state-run exchange, but threw his support behind the partnership model after Republicans killed the state-run option in 2011.
Sen. Keith Ingram, a West Memphis Democrat and vicechairman of the Senate panel, said he favors a state-run exchange and looks forward to making the case against a federally run insurance marketplace.
He said he’s puzzled about why GOP lawmakers don’t want more state control.
“They’re usually for more local control,” he said Tuesday.
Too many questions remain unanswered about how the exchange will work, said Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, a Rogers Republican and a member of the Insurance and Commerce committee.
“I want to wait until the hearings to see if those questions can be answered,” she said.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 02/06/2013