By John Lyon and Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — The House on Monday approved legislation to expand the ARKids First children’s health insurance program.

The Senate passed a bill that would tax hospitals and then use the proceeds to bring in more federal matching dollars for Medicaid, as well as legislation to provide schools across the state with defibrillators.

House Bill 1700 by Rep. Robert Moore, D-Arkansas City, passed in the House in an 82-14 vote and now heads to the Senate. The bill would change the maximum income level to be eligible for ARKids First from 200 percent of the federal poverty level to 250 percent.

Moore said the change would allow an additional 8,000 children to be covered by the program, which provides health care coverage to children in families with too much income to qualify for Medicaid but too little income to afford private insurance.

The expansion is part of Gov. Mike Beebe’s health care package and would be funded by the 56-cents-per-pack cigarette tax increase that Beebe recently signed into law, along with federal matching dollars. The annual cost is estimated at $33 million, of which the state would be responsible for a just under $10 million.

Rep. Mark Martin, R-Prairie Grove spoke against the bill.

“Insurance rates for those children would be much, much, much lower if we just give vouchers to the children to go get insurance,” he said.

Moore responded, “When the private sector is increasing health care at an alarming rate, it is hardly a reasonable thought, I think, that the state would go to the private sector to look to provide the health care that we need to assist in providing for our children.”

Senate Bill 582 by Rep. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, designed to help hospitals across the state recoup revenue from uninsured patients, passed the Senate 29-1 and now goes to the House.

The bill would authorize the state Department of Human Services to collect an “assessment fee” of up to 1 percent of the annual net revenue from 83 hospitals across the state. The $40 million a year generated from the tax would then be matched with federal Medicaid funds, he said, estimating the state would receive “roughly $100 million” a year.

Teague to Senate colleagues hospitals across Arkansas lost about $100 million in 2006 treating the uninsured.

The Medicaid money the state receives would be divided among the hospitals based on the number of Medicaid patients they treat.

“This is the nursing bed tax for hospitals,” Teague said, noting that e nursing homes are assessed a tax, which also is used to match with federal Medicaid money.

About 20 states have enacted a similar hospital provider assessment, he said.

The Senate also approved SB 312 by Sen. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, which would create a program for the state to provide public schools with defibrillators. The bill was approved 33-0 and goes to the House.

The $1 million for the defibrillators is to come from the recently passed tobacco tax increase.

The bill is named in honor of Antony Hobbs II, a 17-year-old Parkview High School basketball player who died two years while playing in a game.

Also Monday:

• The House voted 97-1 to approve HB 1785 by Rep. Steve Harrelson, D-Texarkana, which would allow the Arkansas State Athletics Commission to monitor and develop rules for “combative sports” that the state does not now regulate, such as tournament elimination fighting and mixed martial arts. Harrelson said he became interested in the issue after the February 2008 death of Brandon Twitchell, 23, of Elkhart, Texas, following an elimination tournament in Texarkana.
• The House voted 77-12 vote to approve HB 1420 by Rep. Rick Saunders, D-Hot Springs, which would allow employees of school districts and public agencies to buy certain inmate-produced goods from the state Department of Correction. The bill previously failed in the House in a 9-80 vote, but Saunders said he had addressed members’ concerns by removing language that would have given members of the General Assembly the same privilege. He also said the bill no longer would allow individuals to purchase inmate-produced furniture, addressing a concern raised by the Arkansas Furniture Association.
• The Senate passed, 33-3, SB 2 by Sen. Bobby Glover, D-Carlisle, which would repeal the state’s tax on mini-warehouses and self-storage services, beginning July 1, 2011. The bill now goes to the House. The state Department of Finance and Administration has estimated the repeal would cost the state about $4.2 million annually, but Glover later that he expects that to actually be about $2 million because many of the mini-warehouses and self-storage service businesses are combined with moving rental businesses, such as U-Haul, which generate most of the revenue. The tax on those moving rental businesses would not be repealed, under the bill, he said.