Arkansas House Votes To Kick 96,000 Poor Off Health Care Plans

The Arkansas House voted not to fund a continuation of Medicaid expansion, meaning 96,000 people who depended on Medicaid are left without coverage.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) (pictured) worked out a compromise with the Republican-controlled legislature last year to pass an alternative to Medicaid expansion that uses federal money to help people earning up to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) buy private insurance through the state’s Obamacare marketplace. Nearly 100,000 people have signed up for the popular program so far, and about a quarter million are eligible for coverage, according to official estimates.

But the so-called “private option” has come under fire in recent months as several Republican legislators who originally voted for the deal began reneging their support. Funding for the private option must be renewed every legislative session with a three-fourths supermajority vote in both houses, and current law only funds the expansion through the end of June 2014. If lawmakers fail to appropriate new funds this week, almost 100,000 poor residents will lose their health coverage beginning on July 1.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.