Arkansas Medicaid expansion attracts other states’ interest

Arkansas really doesn’t want to accept the federal government’s $100 billion in Medicaid expansion for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it opposed the federal expansion of health care on political grounds. But the state could also really use the money. So it crafted a third option: instead of using extra Medicaid money to get people on the rolls, why not just sign them all up for private insurance facilitated through the PPACA-mandated insurance exchange system? So far, the feds are saying that would be okay, and suddenly a bunch of other states are looking at the Arkansas Solution with interest.