The following is the first post in a two-part series by staff member Melissa Perry about the ongoing pressure from the Arkansas Insurance Department to establish a government-run health insurance exchange in our state.

On October 11, Jay Bradford, Arkansas Insurance Commissioner, hosted the “Arkansas Health Benefits Exchange Stakeholder Summit” at Embassy Suites in West Little Rock.

To attend this event, you had to fill out a registration form and make a $25 check payable to “AAROC”.  I wondered, what does “AAROC” stand for?  So, I asked the ladies at registration.  Turns out, it stands for Arkansas Autism Resource Outreach Center.  Huh?  My thoughts exactly.  I still haven’t figured out why money from this summit on health exchanges was funneled through the Autism Resource Center.  I am not claiming that anything fishy is going on.  I am claiming that I do not understand.  Period.  There may be a logical explanation.

Now, let me sum up the day from 10:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. because those were the hours I attended.

In most every great debate there are 3 sides:  For it!  Against it!  In the middle!  Today’s Healthcare Exchange Summit was no exception. Let me attempt to articulate the 3 sides.

1)  For it – Arkansas should be proactive and set up its own State Exchanges. 2) Against it – Arkansas should not attempt to set up its own State Exchanges.  3)  In the middle –   Could Arkansas just wait and see what other states do?  Why do we have to try to implement these exchanges now?  We need to wait and see what the courts say.  We need to wait and see if Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA – a.k.a. “Obamacare”) gets overturned.  We need to let the federal government handle the IT infrastructure aspect.  Then, Arkansas can decide what we want to do.  Wait and see.

Those who are “for” Arkansas setting up “its own” State Exchange use the same empty argument over and over.  Namely, Arkansas should be proactive and set up its own State Exchanges before the Federal Government has an opportunity to come in and do it for us because if the Feds do it, then it will not be tailored to Arkansas, it will be at the whims of the Federal Government.  That is brilliant political rhetoric and terribly false.

Here are the facts:  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA – a.k.a. “Obamacare”) (even if implemented by State Exchanges) includes federal subsidies for private plan premiums, tax credits, and other cost reductions only for plans purchased on the Exchange.  Every time you hear the phrases “federal subsidy”, “federal money”, or “tax credit” in this healthcare debate, you need to think one thing:  FEDERAL CONTROL.  Rest assured, Federal Money always comes with Federal Strings attached.  The Federal Government is offering Arkansas a $5 million grant to implement State Exchanges, which is kind of like dangling a $5 million carrot in front of us.  Little do most Arkansans realize, that as soon as we bite into that carrot, they’ve got us.  The trap door closes, and we find ourselves in servitude to the agenda of the Obama Administration and the Liberal Left.  I hope that $5 million carrot was worth it.

Here’s another crazy thing:  your Arkansas Legislature has already said “no” to setting up a State Exchange.  Governor Beebe said that if the Legislature said “no”, then we were not going to pursue State Health Exchanges.  In addition, your Arkansas legislators were told by Jay Bradford, Insurance Commissioner, and others that September 30, 2011, would be the end of the discussion.  Hmmmm.  Fast forward to October 11, 2011 – 11 days after this discussion is supposed to be over.  Now here we are having a type of “town hall meeting” at Embassy Suites where attendees are told that by attending this meeting, they can “Be a part of developing Health Benefits Exchange for Arkansas [and] . . . Contribute to the next round of decisions for the Exchange.”  Hmmmm.  Well, it seems like the discussion was only over if Mike Beebe and his Insurance Commissioner got the answer they wanted.  Guess what?  They did not.  We are still “discussing”.

Check the blog tomorrow to finish this discussion with a look at Four Major Reasons to reject the lie that State Exchanges will give Arkansas “local control”.

1 Comment

  1. Ethan

    First, where was the notion that the feds are offering $5M in grant money to the state derived? I am only aware of a proposed $3.8M grant that was never submitted. The feds would never just say we have $5M for you, come and get it, without a lengthy proposal for it use.

    As for use of grant money, the initial $1M grant for planning–which was appropriated by the legislature–included a proposal for a summit, which happened to be planned at a time subsequent to the legislature’s/governor’s denial of the seeking of further exchnage planning funding. The plan for the summit, as I understand it, was to explain the use of the additional funding. Of course, it turned into a “where do we go from here” summit. I argue that the summit was, therefore, quite useful, given that PPACA remains the law and requires exchanhes, whether state- or federally-run. The last date for requesting planning funding is, in fact, Dec. 31. Additionally, partnership exchange options have been recently released. Consequently, administrators, in the belief that anything but a federally-run exchange is best for Arkansans, moved forward with exploring those options.

    To your point about the falsehood of the argument that state-based exchanges cannot be tailored to meet the needs of Arkansans, vagueries cleary exist in your argument as well as the information regarding the state-based argument. To be sure, there is a floor of regulations in existence that set the fundamentals of an exchange. However, a state-based exchange would allow the state itself to set cost, quality, and access measures for insurance plans in the exchange. Further, state control would allow for the state to set certification requirements for navigators (with the potential not to eliminate the insurance broker/agent business entirely). State control would also allow for the state be sensitive to Arkansas consumers closer to home.

    Clearly absent from the entire discussion is how a state-based exchange would affect jobs. With a call center and navigators here in Arkansas, increased revenues to Arkansas carriers, and retained fees from carriers being retained in our state, surely one can clearly see the economic benefit.

    The pending litigation, as you well know, does not allow the state to abdicate its duty to follow the law. Whether Arkansas has a state-based exchange or a federal exchange, it is our duty to prepare.

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