Award for acting? Senators English and Williams
Two Senate incumbents responded to a candidate survey by claiming a position which is the opposite of how they voted.
Advance Arkansas Institute (AAI) surveyed legislative candidates on various issues. The Arkansas Project asked about Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion. The issue read: “The Arkansas Healthcare Independence Act of 2013 (also known as Medicaid expansion or the “private option”), which expanded eligibility in Arkansas for Medicaid benefits by using tax dollars to buy health insurance to supply those benefits.” The questionnaire then asked each candidate to respond “Support”, “Oppose”, or “Undecided”.
Senator Eddie Joe Williams and Senator Jane English voted for Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option BUT claimed on the survey to be opposed to it. Was this an effort to confuse voters? They both face Republican primary opponents who want to repeal Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option.
Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion is called the Private Option in Arkansas and there is a move to make a few tweaks and rename it “Arkansas Works.” No matter what you call it, Medicaid Expansion is designed by Obamacare to provide health coverage to a group that is primarily able bodied working age adults with no dependents, and nearly half of the group do not work at all, not even seasonally or part time.
Let’s look at the Medicaid Expansion votes of these two Senators and the positions of their opponents in the Republican primary.
SENATE DISTRICT 29
Senator Eddie Joe Williams vs R.D. Hopper
Senator Eddie Joe Williams is the incumbent. His support for Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion / Private Option include:
- 2013 – Voted for the Private Option.[i]
- 2014 – Voted to keep the funding flowing to the Private Option.[ii]
- 2015 – Voted for the pro-Private Option bill, SB96 of 2015. The bill: A. Allows the Private Option to continue until new authorization would be needed anyway at the end of 2016; B. Established a task force with the primary duty to recommend how to continue the coverage after 2016, knowing that the only way to do that would be to continue Medicaid Expansion; and C. Made sure the task force recommendation would be pro-Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option by giving pro-Private Option legislators a majority of the appointments. The task force recommended some “tweaks” to the Private Option and is giving it a new name “Arkansas Works” because the name Private Option has become toxic with the public.
R.D. Hopper is Senator William’s Republican opponent in the Republican Primary. R.D. Hopper supports the repeal of Medicaid Expansion/ Private option.
SENATE DISTRICT 34
Senator Jane English vs Representative Donnie Copeland
Senator Jane English is the incumbent. Although she initially voted against the Private Option in 2013, she supported it in both 2014 and 2015. Her votes supporting Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion / Private Option include:
- 2014 – Senator English was the deciding vote in the Senate to pass funding for Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option.[iii] She made front page news for trading her vote on Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option funding in return for a promise by then Governor Beebe to increase state funding of the workforce training program.[iv]
- 2015 – Voted for the pro-Private Option bill, SB96 of 2015. The bill: A. Allows the Private Option to continue until new authorization would be needed anyway at the end of 2016; B. Established a task force with the primary duty to recommend how to continue the coverage after 2016, knowing that the only way to do that would be to continue Medicaid Expansion; and C. Made sure the task force recommendation would be pro-Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option by giving pro-Private Option legislators a majority of the appointments. The task force recommended some “tweaks” to the Private Option and is giving it a new name “Arkansas Works” because the name Private Option has become toxic with the public.
Representative Donnie Copeland is Senator English’s opponent in the Republican Primary. Representative Copeland is serving in the House of Representatives and his opposition to Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option is clear.
- In 2015 he sponsored HB1181 to REPEAL Arkansas’ Medicaid Expansion/ Private Option. Supporters of the big government program kept his bill bottled up in the House Committee on Public Health Welfare & Labor.
- He voted against the pro-Medicaid Expansion bill SB96 of 2015.
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The 2014 elections showed voters do not want Medicaid Expansion no matter what you call it. At this late date, has it just now dawned on legislators who voted for Medicaid Expansion that they need to appear to be on the other side?
View the Arkansas Project’s article on the Advance Arkansas Institute (AAI) candidate survey here.
[i] HB1143 of 2013 and SB1020 of 2013 – Authorization for Medicaid Expansion to be delivered through insurance cards (Private Option)
[ii] SB111 of 2014. Opponents of the Private Option tried to hold up the appropriation for the Medical Services Division of the Department of Human Services as the only way to try to insert language to end funding for the Private Option.
[iii] SB111 of 2014
[iv] Beebe pledge shifts vote, Arkansas Democrat Gazette, February 19, 2014 – http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2014/feb/19/beebe-pledge-shifts-vote-20140219/