Just saw an interesting press release from Arkansas Medicaid agency on July 12th which says that “Arkansas Medicaid finished State Fiscal Year 2013 just 1.5 percent over the previous year’s spending, marking the program’s lowest annual growth rate in more than three decades.” Thanks to Dylan Scott’s article in Governing Magazine for calling this to our attention!
Next month, Arkansas will submit its Section 1115 Medicaid waiver application to cover new beneficiaries through a premium assistance model buying “private” QHP coverage in the exchange. As part of this effort, the state must show that it will be cost-effective. Since Medicaid generally costs less than private coverage, one wonders how this will be so. And the state’s recent announcement of historic low growth in Arkansas Medicaid couldn’t help make me say hmmmm…..
