John Selig’s Exit Comes at Pivotal Time for DHS (Andrew DeMillo Analysis)

John Selig

LITTLE ROCK – Overseeing a sprawling agency whose responsibilities include an overburdened child welfare system and a first-in-the-nation hybrid Medicaid expansion, John Selig has had probably the least politically appealing job in Arkansas government. His departure as the Department of Human Services director adds more uncertainty to the future of the agency’s key missions.

Selig’s announcement this month that he was stepping down as DHS director after 10 years in the post followed the latest sign that Arkansas’ private option will undergo an overhaul if it survives. A consultant hired by the Legislature two days earlier called for sweeping changes – plus a new name – to the program that’s providing coverage to more than 200,000 low-income residents.

Selig, who was first named to the post under Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2005, said now seemed like the right time after heading an agency that’s handled some of the state’s most complicated issues.

“One of the things about DHS is it’s never a slow day,” Selig said last week. “Because of the populations we serve, there will always be challenges that come up. In juvenile justice, in child welfare, adult protective services, you name it, there will be something that comes up.”

One of the biggest remaining challenges will be the future of the private option, which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents. Crafted as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health overhaul in 2013, the program’s reauthorization has sparked an ongoing fight among Republicans who have become the majority party primarily by derailing the law they deride as “Obamacare.”

After being continued for another year by the Legislature, the program again faces an uncertain future. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson has called for keeping the program if the federal government will agree to new limits on its benefits and eligibility. A legislative task force is expected to issue recommendations on the program’s future later this year, and a consultant hired by the panel issued its own proposals for changing the program.

Keeping the program alive will require three-fourths support from the House and Senate, a hurdle supporters have barely cleared over the past two years and complicated by the private option being a key issue in many Republican legislative primaries next year.

Selig said he thinks it’s unfortunate the program has become such a politically charged issue and regularly faces such an uphill fight to be continued given the high vote threshold needed.

“It’s just really taxing on the Legislature and the governor to have to keep working on that topic as opposed to being able to say, ‘the vast majority of us approve of this particular approach and let’s move on,'” he said.

Selig’s exit also comes as the department faces increasing scrutiny over the way it determines eligibility for those on Medicaid. Lawmakers have been questioning the ballooning cost and delays in the eligibility system. It also comes as the state is trying to reduce the backlog of cases in its foster care system.

Hutchinson’s choice to replace Selig will be a major indicator on where the governor wants to go in overhauling the Medicaid expansion and other changes to DHS. He told reporters last week he was looking at both the private and public sectors for DHS director, but doesn’t have a specific timeline for naming a successor.

“We’re looking outside the norm…We’ve got to have somebody who can understand $200 million IT contracts, that can minimize the risk for the taxpayers, that can work with the Legislature, that can recruit the right talent for the different levels of DHS as well,” Hutchinson said. “Big shoes to fill, but sometimes we limit ourselves in government by saying we’ve got to have somebody who’s had experience in that arena of government.”

Andrew DeMillo has covered Arkansas government and politics for The Associated Press since 2005. Follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/ademillo.

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