WASHINGTON - Other states shouldn’t be scared off if Arkansas legislators don’t renew funding for the private option, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe said Monday.
Beebe, a Democrat, told a room full of health-care reporters in Washington that while the Arkansas Legislature wrangles over renewing funding for the private-option Medicaid expansion, other states are beginning to debate their own plans to expand health insurance to poor citizens.
Beebe’s appearance came on the same day that President Barack Obama singled Beebe out for praise, telling the National Governors Association that the Arkansas governor has “done some terrific work” while expanding health care for the poor.
During the association’s winter meeting, other governors approached him privately about how to pass a program similar to Arkansas’ and what advantages it has, Beebe said.
He said some Republican governors will never agree to expansion because they dislike the president, but “more and more are trying to find a way to do it.”
The private option is more than just Medicaid expansion with a different label, Beebe said.
“What we did was substantive,” he said. “This is not an endorsement of Obamacare in Arkansas.”
Back in Little Rock, legislative leaders have scheduled more votes this week on appropriating $915 million in federal Medicaid funds to buy private health insurance for about 100,000 poor Arkansans.
Speaker of the House Davy Carter, R-Cabot, said Monday he had not decided whether the House would vote today on that private-option funding bill. Carter had said in previous interviews that he planned to hold a floor vote on the bill every day until it passed, but Monday he said he will make a “game-time decision” on whether to vote before the House convenes this afternoon.
Last week, the Arkansas House repeatedly failed to reach the three-fourths majority, or 75 votes, needed to pass Senate Bill 111. Supporters have only rounded up 71 votes for the measure, which passed the Senate on Thursday.
“Trust me, it’s not my idea” to need that many votes, Beebe said. He said he hasn’t found another state that requires spending bills to clear such a hurdle.
“The good news is the speaker is willing to continue voting,” he said.
Beebe said other states shouldn’t lose interest if Arkansas’ Legislature can’t renew funding for the program.
“If other states recognize that if it doesn’t go forward, it’s because a small majority stopped it, I don’t think it’ll have any affect on what other states are going to do,” Beebe said.
“The substance of what’s going on is going to be appealing, and it’s not [going to]change.”
Arkansas was the first state to get federal approval for a plan to use federal funding to purchase private insurance for people with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty level - for example, $15,860 for an individual and $32,500 for a family of four.
That approval came by way of a waiver that authorizes the state to use federal Medicaid funds from the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - sometimes referred to as Obamacare - to pay private health-insurance premiums for poor Arkansans.
Beebe said he’s urged the Obama administration to make it easier for other states to get a waiver now that Arkansas has gone through the application and approval process.
Speaking to the National Governors Association meeting Monday afternoon, the president asked governors to “work with us to get this done. We can provide a lot of flexibility.”
Obama pointed out Beebe’s work on the private option as an example.
“Folks like Mike Beebe in Arkansas have done some terrific work designing programs that are right for their states but also provide access to care for people who need it,” he said,
Beebe said many Republican governors recognize that they cannot control the national debt or deficit at the state level and that tax-money that would have gone to providing health insurance to their citizens will still be collected and will still be spent.
“A lot of them have awakened to that,” Beebe said. “You have an obligation to the people in your state.”
Iowa was approved to use federal funds to buy private insurance in December.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, said the Affordable Care Act and regular Medicaid expansion is not affordable or sustainable.
“We came up with our own plan,” he said. “We also want to make sure we’re doing all we can to help Iowans.”
A handful of states are currently considering Medicaid expansion, including New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. All those states have Republican-controlled legislatures except for New Hampshire and Virginia, which are divided between parties.
Governors in Florida, Indiana, Missouri and Montana have said they also could support some kind of Medicaid expansion. The states have Republican-controlled legislatures. Florida and Indiana have Republican governors. Missouri and Montana have Democratic governors.
While Beebe, the White House and some Arkansas Republicans are praising the private option, other Arkansas Republicans are lobbying to quash similar experiments in other states.
House Republican leader Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs participated in a news conference by phone last week with Virginia’s House Republican leader Kirk Cox and spoke on a local talk radio show thenext day.
“Once you start one of these programs, it’s hard to stop them,” Westerman, a 4th Congressional District candidate, told the John Fredericks Show on WHKT-AM, 1650, in Hampton Roads, Va.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and the state Senate, led by fellow Democrats, have proposed a Medicaid expansion plan called Marketplace Virginia. It would also use Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance and would require unemployed recipients to look for work. The Republican-led House opposes the idea.
Westerman urged opponents to define the plan, rather than let supporters characterize it, saying Arkansans were confused by the private-option label.
“It’s absolutely Obamacare. It’s not free money from Washington,” he said.
Westerman isn’t the only Arkansas Republican trying to keep the private-option concept from spreading to other states.
Last fall, two lawmakers who voted against Arkansas’ private option were sent to Pennsylvania by a group that opposes the Affordable Care Act.
Private-option foes state Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, and Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, reported on their Statements of Financial Interest that Arlington, Va.-based Americans for Prosperity paid for them to travel to Pennsylvania to hold a news conference and meet with state lawmakers in September.
Hendren reported that Americans for Prosperity paid $1,298.89 of his expenses, and Dotson reported that the group paid $1,558.89 of his expenses.
Hendren said the Americans for Prosperity’s Pennsylvania group called him and asked him if he would be willing to explain “our experiences here” to some of their lawmakers.
“It was amazing basically the same segments of philosophies in the caucuses there as there are here. There were those who are adamantly opposed. There were those who were most receptive of it. I just explained what our experiences here and what our concerns were here,” he said.
Hendren said he met with a few legislators and he attended a news conference.
The Pennsylvania governor is trying to implement the program through an executive order instead of running it through the Legislature.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, has submitted his proposal and waiver request to the federal government. It would purchase private insurance for about 500,000 residents using Medicaid funds and in 2016 would require all able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work and pay a monthly premium.
Dotson said Americans for Prosperity in Pennsylvania “just wanted to get my feedback on it, so I went up there and told them what I thought about it.”
Asked if he had any influence in Pennsylvania, Dotson replied, “I doubt it. Probably about the same amount of influence I had here on the vote last year.”
He said he explained to those in Pennsylvania that he opposed the private option because it expands government and adds federal dollars to state spending.
“Based on the principle, I wasn’t in support of it and didn’t think it was good long term for our state and figured the same was probably true for theirs,” he said.
Claudia Lauer of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette contributed to this article.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/25/2014