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Arkansas’ Latest Idea: ObamaCare Welfare for People Who Already Have Insurance

Arkansas’ Obamacare expansion, commonly known as the “Private Option,” has been a nightmare. Costs have run significantly over budget and the truly needy are being pushed to the back of the line. The Government Accountability Office reported that Arkansas’ approach was simply a more expensive way to expand Obamacare. And, surprise, the promised economic stimulus from expansion never materialized.

The program has proven wildly unaffordable for taxpayers and has become a political landmine for state legislators. Facing mounting cost overruns and serious questions about long-term sustainability, the legislature and governor agreed last year to terminate the expansion at the end of 2016.

But now Governor Asa Hutchinson has decided that the state desperately needs to keep Obamacare expansion and has called a special session that will begin April 6th to extend it. Hutchinson’s plan will also make cosmetic tweaks to the expansion and give the program a new, Orwellian name: “Arkansas Works.”

One of the key bugs, errr, “features” of this new plan is to begin utilizing employer-sponsored health insurance plans for Medicaid expansion enrollees. But there are several elements of this proposal that are cause for serious concern.

At FGA, we don’t just talk about changing policy—we make it happen.

By partnering with FGA through a gift, you can create more policy change that returns America to a country where entrepreneurship thrives, personal responsibility is rewarded, and paychecks replace welfare checks.