Gov. Asa Hutchinson wants to add a work requirement to Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion and to lower its eligibility cap, which would add new restrictions to the program even as the future of the federal health overhaul remains unclear.
The Republican governor on Monday detailed changes he'll ask the federal government to approve for the program, which uses Medicaid funds to buy private insurance for the poor. More than 300,000 people are on the program that was created in 2013 as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law.
Hutchinson proposes lowering the program's eligibility to 100 percent of the federal poverty level, which would move about 60,000 people to the subsidized insurance marketplace. He said he wants to submit the proposals to the federal government by June.
