A telephone survey of Arkansas voters found that only 15 percent supported moving the state’s Medicaid population to managed care, according to the results released Friday.
The Arkansas Hospital Association and Arkansas Pharmacists Association released the results of the statewide poll on health care reform conducted between Feb. 25-26.
The survey asked 453 Arkansans’ opinion on managed care and has a margin or error of 4.53 percent.
The Arkansas Health Reform Legislative Task Force is expected to vote on the managed care model on Monday.
More: What to expect at Monday’s health reform task force meeting.
“Right now, the state government is considering moving Arkansas’s Medicaid population into a managed care system,” Bo Ryall, CEO of Arkansas Hospital Association, said in a news release. “If a managed care company took over Medicaid in Arkansas, a group of private insurance companies would be in charge of the health care costs and the care provided to the state’s Medicaid population — specifically children, seniors, disabled, and mentally ill Arkansans.”
The survey found that 37 percent were opposed to moving the state’s Medicaid population to managed care, while 12 percent were neutral and 37 percent said they didn’t have enough information to form an opinion, the survey said.
“Arkansans are concerned about the future of their healthcare,” Scott Pace, CEO of Arkansas Pharmacists Association, said in the news release. “Arkansans dislike the idea of managed care companies standing between them and their choice of pharmacists, doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers.”
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