Category Archives: State government

For Rep. Josh Miller, private option policy wasn’t personal

miller-joshShould a lawmaker who has received a lot of needed government assistance vote to extend government assistance to others? That’s a question Rep. Josh Miller, R-Heber Springs, has had to answer recently.

Miller, 32, has been a consistent opponent of the private option, which uses Medicaid dollars to buy private insurance for lower-income Arkansans. It was created mostly by Republicans in the Legislature who were trying to make the best of Obamcare. Other Republicans oppose it, just as they oppose Obamacare itself. It passed in 2013 and then was extended this year after one heck of a debate.

Why is Miller’s vote worth more attention than the 23 other House members who voted against it on the final vote?

A broken neck changed Miller’s life

A decade ago when he was 22, Miller was drinking with a buddy, climbed into his pickup truck and, minutes later, careened off the side of the road and into a ravine. He does not remember who was driving. He remembers his father, Larry, telling him in a hospital weeks after the accident that he had broken his neck but that the Lord had spared his life so far and things would be OK. Larry was a credible source of comfort considering he has been in a wheelchair as a result of a muscular condition all of Miller’s life.

The accident left Miller paralyzed from the neck down, though he has some use of his arms. Because he did not have insurance, Medicaid paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars of his medical care. He and his family also paid a share of the medical bills. Medicaid and Medicare have since paid for other care, including ongoing help from a personal assistant. Continue reading →

An adult Arkansan learns to read

Dewitt’s Toby Allen Lane is 31 years old. He is married. He works at Dean Robinson Seeds, and his boss considers him management material. He is a responsible, upstanding citizen. And as of last November, he couldn’t read.

As of today, he can thanks to a decision he made to seek help from the Literacy Council of Arkansas County. His tutor, Terri Cooper, says he is a motivated, goal-oriented student, which explains why he now is reading at a high middle school level.

Lane is not alone. No one knows how many adult Arkansans can’t read, but the Arkansas Literacy Councils, the state’s umbrella organization, is working to reduce the number. For two years, I was president of the board of directors, so I know a lot about its work.

It would be hard to find a more efficient organization offering more bang for the buck. Thanks to an army of 6,000 volunteer tutors, last year it helped 12,063 adults improve their reading, writing, and/or English language skills at a cost of $675,000 in state funds, plus other sources of funding. That’s $56 per student.

But it could do more. That $675,000 hasn’t been increased for decades. According to Executive Director Jennifer Holman, there are 628 adults on waiting lists. There would be more if local councils had the money to better market their services.

Arkansas has made tremendous investments in K-12 and higher education – in other words, services for people under 25. Couldn’t it do more – either publicly or privately – for the Toby Lanes of the world?

That’s the subject of my column this week for the Arkansas News Bureau.

Good news: Medical malpractice insurance rates going down

Looking for good news in a bad economy? Medical malpractice rates have not only stabilized but are decreasing.

According to the latest available information, rates in Arkansas are down 1.3 percent since 2006 as a result of malpractice insurance companies paying out less in claims, and they appear likely to remain at low rates.

According to Lars Powell, Ph.D., Whitbeck-Beyer chair of insurance and financial services at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business, “Every new piece of information we get about claims and loss experience has been less than what we’ve seen before. So it’s possible the rates could go back up. But you would expect to see that precipitated by large losses or an increased frequency of claims, and to my knowledge, we haven’t see either one in Arkansas yet.”

The decrease follows a big run-up in rates during the first part of the 2000s, when the state Insurance Department allowed companies to have double-digit increases several straight years and turned down increase requests of as much as 100 percent.

So why are the rates going down? Primarily it’s the economy. Nationally, the Physician Insurers Association of America says claims frequency is down 25-30 percent from four or five years ago. That’s because plaintiffs’ attorneys don’t want to pay the high costs of filing suit unless they have a very good case. According to the PIAA, only 30 percent of all claims filed against doctors end up in a payment to the plaintiffs.

There are also more competitors in the marketplace. In 2004, when the dominant St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company abruptly left the market, no one was offering coverage. Now there are a couple of dozen companies either renewing business or seeking new policyholders.

Other reasons: Arkansas has not had any huge verdicts in several years. Also, physicians appear to be doing a better job of applying risk management practices that reduce the potential of a lawsuit.

One factor not really affecting the rates: tort reform. Arkansas’ 2003 law has been eviscerated by the courts. Health care reform also should have little effect, good or bad, on rates.

We’re due for a comprehensive Insurance Department report that will shed more light on the subject. I will keep you posted.

Independent Rogers would have joined the Democratic caucus

D’James Rogers, who placed second in the July 12 District 54 special election to represent Crittenden County, said today that he would have joined the Democratic caucus if elected.

Rogers ran as an independent because he wanted an African-American to represent the majority-minority district rather than the eventual winner, newly sworn in Rep. Hudson Hallum (D-Marion). Hallum, who is caucasian, had defeated two African-Americans in the Democratic primary.

Hallum won the July 12 special election held after Rep. Fred Smith (D-Crawfordsville) resigned following a felony conviction.

According to unofficial returns, Hallum received 987 votes, while Rogers received 437. Republican John Greelan received 415 votes.

Rogers said that, if he had won, he would have governed as a Democrat. He has been actively working with Democrats since 2000 and was the regional field director for last year’s coordinated campaign.

Rogers said that running as an independent was difficult in a district dominated by Democrats. Naturally, he received no help from the Democratic Party and struggled to raise money. “I didn’t get any support from them,” he said. “It was like, ‘We’ll talk to you once the election is over with.’”

He campaigned with the help of family and friends and used social media to communicate his message. He said African-American leaders in the district did support him.

He said he would run again some time in the future and would do so as a Democrat.

Yarnell’s – It’s my Mom’s fault

Within hours after Yarnell’s announced it was closing shop, the Republican Party of Arkansas was ready with a press release blaming the Democrats.

This, of course, is what politicos do – play the blame game, and the Democrats are no different.

But really, it’s not Beebe’s fault, or the Republicans’ fault, that this Arkansas institution is shutting down. It’s my Mom’s fault.

Mom told me last weekend that she didn’t buy Yarnell’s for a simple reason: She didn’t like its fat-free flavors. She likes Blue Bell – you know, that Texas company.

Mom is one of millions of consumers simply making choices in a free market economy. It turns out that a lot of them – in fact, too many of them for Yarnell’s to survive – chose of their own free will to purchase another brand.

Certainly government can enact policies that make it easier for regional independents like Yarnell’s to survive – mostly by NOT enacting policies that favor big corporations. But this never-ending blame game really doesn’t solve anything.

To read more about Yarnell’s – and my mom – check out my Arkansas News Bureau column here.