By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe has said he won’t pursue millions of dollars in federal grant money to plan for an Arkansas-run health insurance exchange because Republicans are against it.
But state Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford is going ahead with a public discussion next week on how a state-run exchange would benefit Arkansas as part of the federal health care reform law — in case someone has a change of heart.
Bradford will join Joel Ario, former director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ office of health insurance exchanges, and state Surgeon General Dr. Joe Thompson in the forum scheduled Tuesday at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Little Rock.
Alice Jones, spokesman for the state Insurance Department, said today that officials are moving forward with the forum despite opposition by Republicans in the Legislature, and the fact that Beebe has opted, on three separate occasions this year — most recently at the end of September — not to apply for grant funds because of the lack of support by lawmakers.
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said today that Beebe has not changed his mind.
“But we’ve got nothing against sharing enough knowledge and information (about the exchange) in the mean time,” DeCample said.
House Minority John Burris, R-Harrison, said Friday that Bradford gave lawmakers the impression last month that Sept. 30 was the drop deadline to apply for a $3.8 million grant.
“I think this underscores our point, and that was that Sept. 30th was not the end of the conversation,” Burris said. “It was somewhat portrayed that the train is leaving the station Sept. 30th and will be gone forever after that, and that is clearly not the case.”
Burris said GOP lawmakers believe the state has more time decide the issue, and there is no need to act immediately. They also are waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the constitutionality of the federal health care law.
Late last month, Burris and five other GOP legislators sent a letter to Bradford urging him not to apply for the grant by the Sept. 30 deadline, despite comments from Bradford that without the funding the state would fall behind in the planning process.
The state previously received a $1 million federal grant to fund planning for the exchange, which under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act must be operational by Jan. 1, 2014. The federal government will set up exchanges for states that choose not to create them.
Bradford has said repeatedly that the state would be better off running its own exchange, rather than participating in one that is federally managed.
