LITTLE ROCK -- Poor people on Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion could still get coverage under a block-grant system if President Barack Obama's health overhaul is repealed, Republican Sen. John Boozman said Saturday.
The comments sparked criticism from his Democratic challenger over the Republican senator's repeated votes to end the federal law.
Speaking to the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors, Boozman said a block-grant system would give states such as Arkansas that have expanded Medicaid more flexibility in how they spend federal dollars. The Arkansas Senate last week upheld Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson's decision to keep the hybrid expansion, which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for poor residents.
"There is a need for who people who are uninsured and I think there's a lot of talk about taking and block granting some money to the states so they can use those dollars in a way they feel like they need to without tremendous bureaucracy out of the federal government, to take care of the people they need to take care of," Boozman told the group. "So that's the way I'd approach it."
Democratic nominee Conner Eldridge, speaking separately to the group, said Boozman's comments conflict with his repeated calls and votes to repeal the federal health care law.
"I think it sort of rings hollow for me that he would come in here today and sort of offer that as an answer to your question," Eldridge said. "There's a whole lot bigger debate that that talking point ignores."
Boozman said he didn't know whether the block-grant approach would cover the same number of people currently insured by the state's hybrid expansion, or whether it would provide the same level of federal funding. Arkansas' program was created three years ago as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law.
"I think you give the governors the ability to take those dollars and they can use them much, much more efficiently than being micromanaged out of Washington," Boozman said.
Hutchinson is asking the federal government to allow new limits on the program, including a requirement that some participants pay premiums.
Eldridge, a former federal prosecutor, has declined to say whether he would have voted for the federal health overhaul but says he opposes efforts to repeal the law. Eldridge said he believes states should have more flexibility on the expanded coverage, but stopped short of what types of restrictions they should be allowed to impose. Hutchinson had initially floated requiring expansion participants be employed and a limit on their assets, but the Obama administration has said federal law wouldn't allow such restrictions.
"What I'm interested in doing is making sure the 267,000 people who have health insurance today in Arkansas remain on health insurance and that's not revoked from them," Eldridge said.
State Desk on 05/01/2016