Category Archives: Health care

Arkansas joins call to amend the Constitution

Health care, Independents and third parties, Legislature, Politics, State government

Arkansans of the Year, Convention of States

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

This past week the Legislature did something either completely irrelevant or extremely significant.

It passed a resolution adding Arkansas to the slowly growing list of states calling for a convention to consider constitutional amendments to impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power, and enact term limits.

The U.S. Constitution can be amended two ways under its own Article V: Congress starts the process, or the states do. The states have never succeeded in doing it.

But Arkansas became the 13th of a necessary 34 states to approve this particular resolution. This occurred after the House said yes Wednesday, and then the Senate, which had already approved it, agreed to add the names of House sponsors Thursday. Continue reading Arkansas joins call to amend the Constitution →

Taxing cigarettes – both kinds

Health care, Politics, State government
Jim Hendren, tobacco tax
Sen. Jim Hendren is considering if tobacco taxes should be raised and if e-cigarette taxes should be enacted.

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

What do these five numbers mean to you: $795 million; $230 million; $1.15; 0; and 1.5 million?

This year, they might mean a tax increase on cigarettes, both the old-fashioned kind and the e-cigarette kind. Or at least, they might should.

The first two numbers compare what tobacco products cost Arkansas taxpayers through the Medicaid program, $795 million, vs. what tobacco taxes raise, $230 million.

The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement says Medicaid spends $795 million annually to treat tobacco-related illnesses among adults ages 30 to 65. That number doesn’t include older Arkansans, young people, or pregnancy-related health issues.

However, the state’s tobacco taxes only raised about $230 million in 2017. That’s about $565 million less than what Medicaid is spending.  Continue reading Taxing cigarettes – both kinds →

The year’s top posts

Health care, Inspirational, Legislature, Politics, Uncategorized

Happy new year! Here are independentarkansas’ most-read posts from 2018.

Jim Hendren Joyce Elliott

How to disagree agreeably about the NFL anthem controversy. Here’s how Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, a conservative Republican Senate leader, and Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, who grew up in segregated schools, handle their differences on that hot-button issue. By far the year’s top-performing post.

Your pharmacist doesn’t want to see you now. Read how changes in pharmacy benefit manager disbursements left Arkansas druggists struggling to turn a profit. Legislators later met in special session to address the issue, but you can bet it won’t go away.

Why five legislators are going to jail. Another one has since been indicted, and the investigation is continuing.

Project Zero

How one video changed a life. A report by KTHV’s Dawn Scott led one couple to provide a home for a young man who needed a family. It’s the fourth-biggest performing post despite being online less than three weeks.


Obamacare ruling: Next 20 years more important than next two

Health care, Legislature, Politics, State government, U.S. Congress

Seema Verna
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verna hands a waiver to Gov. Asa Hutchinson allowing the state to require Arkansas Works recipients to work. Hutchinson opposes Obamacare but has championed the Arkansas Works program created as a result of the law.

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

How significant was the federal judge’s ruling last week that Obamacare is unconstitutional? We might not know for another two years, but the bigger question is, what happens in the next 20?

The judge ruled in a lawsuit that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional because the U.S. Supreme Court’s original reasoning could no longer stand.

Back in 2013, the Supremes ruled the individual mandate to buy health insurance is constitutional because the penalty for not doing so is a “tax.”

In December, Congress repealed the penalty when it passed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. A Texas-led coalition of 20 states, including Arkansas under Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, sued arguing that without the penalty, there’s no tax, which means Obamacare itself is no longer constitutional.

Texas Judge Reed O’Connor agreed, though he did not issue an injunction, which means nothing happens while the ruling is under appeal. Now the case winds its way through the system, perhaps ending at the Supreme Court. Continue reading Obamacare ruling: Next 20 years more important than next two →