Our View

Our View

‘Free’ Insurance simply isn’t free

Just as a reminder, the annual cost of providing free or government subsidized health care to about 300,000 Arkansans, including nearly 8,000 with mental issues is about $7.6 billion in state and federal funds. So, we should have no qualms whatsoever with the decision to go after those Arkansas Works enrollees who have reneged on their obligation to pay their piddly $13 a month premiums.

The plan is to identify the freeloaders among the 62,000 enrolled in the program who haven’t met their monthly obligation since last January, and have the money taken out of any state income tax refunds they might otherwise be owed when they file their tax returns in 2019. We’re talking about those participants in the state program with incomes between 100 percent and 138 percent of the poverty level.

That involves an individual, that income range is $12,060 to $16,643 a year.

We’re not shocked to learn that only about 20 percent of enrollees who are required to pay premiums do so on a regular basis. The others owe premiums totaling about $8 million, state officials say.

Let’s point out the requirement for some enrollees to pay premiums is one of several changes to Arkansas’ expanded Medicaid program that took effect Jan. 1, when the program became known as Arkansas Works.

This requirement was necessary to cut costs as well as a request to federal officials to move enrollees with incomes above the poverty level off the program and impose a work requirement on some of the remaining enrollees, starting in 2018.

Under the so-called private option, most Arkansas Works enrollees are covered by private insurance plans, with the state Medicaid program paying most or all of the premiums.

So when one of these many enrollees simply falls to make a premium payment, the state Medicaid program goes head and pays the insurance company on behalf of the enrollee, who then incurs a debt to the state.

It is simply incomprehensible why someone, even with a limited income, can’t come up with a measly $13 a month in premiums for complete health care that people not eligible for the subsidy pays hundreds of dollars a month for the same coverage.

To the liberals among us let us pose the question.

Is a mere $13 a month too much to pay a fair share?

Or is it too much to expect some of these individuals taking advantage of this government subsidy to actually get a job? We certainly don’t think so. Let us put it this way, if any other Arkansans paying the full cost of their health care policy failed to make a payment their coverage would be immediately canceled.

Recouping these costs by means of taking it out of any state income tax refund is the state’s only option because the state is prohibited from hiring a collection agency or even garnishing an enrollee’s wages.

Knowing only about 20 percent of enrollees are paying their more than fair share it is obviously these ungrateful freeloaders are trying to get something for nothing.