private option

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he wants lawmakers to look at a restriction on assets, a cap on lifetime benefits and other new limits if the state keeps its hybrid Medicaid expansion. read more >

The program's fate is expected to become clearer this week, with Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson set to deliver a speech Thursday on the future of health care in Arkansas that will also address his plans for the private option. read more >

Politics, white-collar crime, banking acquisitions, Turner Grain and more. Arkansas Business recaps the top 10 stories from the year that was 2014. read more >

There are still a few races yet to be called, but what we know already about the results from Tuesday's election in the state legislature sets up what is sure to be an interesting battle over the state's private option. read more >

Arkansas is asking the federal government to allow changes to the state's compromise Medicaid expansion that would require some participants to contribute monthly to health savings accounts and would impose new limits on transportation for non-emergency services. read more >

Today thousands of working Arkansans will need medical care they cannot afford. Today you can assure them at least one more year of health insurance. read more >

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences had an operating loss of $27.8 million in the first six months of its current fiscal year, a dramatic downturn from an $8.5 million operating gain during the same period a year earlier. read more >

Over the past few months, the eyes of a nation trying to work with the reality of the Affordable Care Act have been trained on Arkansas, where bipartisanship aimed at doing the best for Arkansas’ working poor while controlling the growth of government had struck upon a novel solution called the “private option.” read more >

During the last session, key Republican legislators put aside their dislike of Obamacare to craft a unique way to accept federal dollars to provide health insurance to Arkansans who desperately need it: the “private option.” Thank you, Sens. Sanders, Dismang and Burris. Thank you, Rep. Murdock and others who worked behind the scenes to make Arkansas a health care innovations model for the nation. read more >

It is most disappointing, as the middle class declines and the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” widens, that there are still elected officials who believe “it is not the government’s role to provide for able-bodied people.” read more >

Davy Carter, speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, said he thinks legislators will hold their noses and vote to continue funding the “private option” Medicaid expansion during the fiscal session that begins Feb. 10. read more >

The private option provides a long-overdue lifeline to working people who have not managed to break into the middle class. Now our state is on the cusp of taking a giant step backward, taking away the private insurance that just began to provide a modicum of security for people living on the edge. read more >

Arkansas Business supports the so-called private option, the mechanism that extends health care coverage to thousands of Arkansans. read more >