Arkansas’ ‘private’ Medicaid option costs already exceeding federal caps

By Rep. Joe Farrar | for The Arkansas Project

When we passed the Private Option Medicaid expansion last year, we did so under the explicit promise that the state taxpayer would bear no costs of the Medicaid expansion for at least the first three years.

But what was promised during the legislative debate and what was negotiated between the Beebe and Obama administrations are very different.

The Obama administration capped federal Private Option funding with per-person monthly caps for each of the next three years. State taxpayers are on the hook for costs that exceed these federal caps, to be repaid at the end of the 3-year waiver window.

In the second month of the Private Option, we are already exceeding those federal caps and the state taxpayer will pay $6 to $18 million in 2014 alone as a result.

at The Arkansas Project.

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