A handcrafted health insurance coverage expansion strategy in Arkansas may be helping the state increase access to primary care services.
Analysts at the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Health Research Institute talk about the effects of the Arkansas coverage expansion program while looking at the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) Medicaid expansion program. The analysts note that officials in 26 states and the District of Columbia agreed to use PPACA Medicaid expansion money to help residents with moderately low incomes “get covered.”
PPACA drafters expected states to use the money to expand Medicaid. Arkansas officials won permission from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to use much of the “Medicaid expansion” money to help moderate-income residents pay for individual qualified health plan (QHP) coverage from the PPACA public exchange system.