Gov. Mike Beebe dismissed concerns over a report this week by the Government Accountability Office saying Arkansas’s private option plan will cost the federal government more than had been estimated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which approved the program.
Auditors had said the state’s alternative Medicaid expansion program will not be “revenue-neutral” compared to a standard Medicaid expansion under the federal healthcare law.
"That's a fight among the feds, we don't get in the middle of that," Beebe said, noting that different sets of numbers were used by the two.
"The GAO doesn't take into consideration that the cost to the federal government is going to be a lot lower on the exchange because the competition created by the private option which has created two larger new companies to come into the state."
Beebe also touted that premiums are now expected to drop.
"All we can do in Arkansas is take care of ourselves and proceed from there, and the projections are pretty good," Beebe said. "Overall projections show a two percent decrease. When has that happened in my lifetime in health insurance inflationary costs? It's pretty neat."
He also said the plan, which uses federal Medicaid funds to buy private health insurance for lower income people, has been key in helping the state's hospitals.
