Big Enrollment Surprises GOP, But Makes Sense

Somewhere, today, former Gov. Mike Beebe is smiling.

You know that sly little smile of his. It was almost a smirk, that real insider’s trademark grin, which the former state senator, attorney general and two-term Democratic governor used when he knew he was right.

That smile was an all knowing I-told-you-so smile. It was a smile that only a real political student of the Arkansas way of its citizens can possess and display at times of victory.

Well, former Gov. Beebe owns that smile this week, as details from the state announced that 307,878 citizens are enrolled in the state’s newly named Arkansas Works, Medicaid-based insurance program for low income, disabled citizens.

Earlier projections were that upwards of 250,000 or possibly even 275,000 Arkan- sans could – the operative word – could be eligible for this program

But now there are 307,878 who ARE enrolled in the program.

And that number, the state quietly murmurs, could be even higher because the enrollment numbers did not include those who have already been deemed eligible but were not finished with the enrollment process.

So this program is a big success.

But really, what does it mean?

That depends upon who is speaking the soundbite at the moment.

The current gover- nor — Asa Hutchison, a Republican, who needs the Arkansas Works program to be a success so his state budget will remain intact – is well, a little amazed.

“We’re concerned about the growing numbers and controlling costs, and that is one of the reasons that the reforms under Arkansas Works are very important,” Hutchinson told the state’s largest newspaper this week.

Hutchinson isn’t smiling. He is walking and talking in tightrope terms to keep down his fear that he has propagated something that is unstoppable — granting the poor of this very poor state access to health care.

That is a plank that is not very visible on the state or national Republican’s platforms of policies.

Republicans like to talk about low-income healthcare coverage with an eye on working, often demeaning the working poor, who have such low-paying jobs that traditional health care insurance is far out of their reach.

Providing health care to such low income individuals is not about making better health-care outcomes — it is about making sure these poor folks work for what the government offers.

There are direct benefits to having 307,878 folks enrolled in the state’s program to use federal dollars to pay for health insurance premiums for the Arkansans at or below the federal poverty level.

First, the benefit: Keeps the hospitals and medical clinics of the state from bankruptcy in providing uncompensated care of 307,878 individuals who, prior to this program, would show up for medical treatment and often could not afford to pay.

Second, the insurance rates in the state will be lower than surrounding states — yes Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. Those are all states that rejected the expansion of Medicaid as proposed from Washington, D.C., and are now paying the higher premiums.

Arkansas, thanks to a Democratic governor (Beebe) who listened to a largely Republican led overhaul of the federal government’s health-care initiative from a quartet of Republican members (David Sanders, et al.) back in 2013 and passed the Private Option.

The current GOP-led state House and state Senate, along with Gov. Hutchinson, have renamed the “Private Option” as “Arkansas Works.” They have kept the major concepts of the Medicaid Reform alive and affordable for more Arkansans than even the wildest dreams of early projectors of statistics could imagine.

Now the big challenge is not to let the far-right wing of the Republican party in Arkansas and other pot-clangers trying to sound the frantic alarm that poor people are abusing the system, overturn the apple cart.

Arkansas needs a healthier state.

Arkansas needs Arkansas Works, but it needs caution — not an overhaul to re-invent the wheel when the wheel is working.

Somewhere today Mike Beebe is indeed smiling.

What he knew to be a good thing for poor, under-insured Arkansans with no health insurance is working.

And working, oh so, well.

MAYLON RICE, AN AWARDWINNING COLUMNIST, HAS WRITTEN BOTH NEWS AND COLUMNS FOR SEVERAL NWA PUBLICATIONS AND HAS BEEN WRITING FOR THE ENTERPRISELEADER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.