As we honor veterans this week, it’s important to remember that they often have complex health needs when they return home from their service. In Arkansas, our Medicaid program provides critical access to health services for veterans – a fact that is often overlooked in health coverage conversations. In fact, when Arkansas expanded Medicaid 10 […]

Arkansas Not on Track for Insurance Coverage for Arkansas’s Children Every year, our Finish Line report provides a snapshot of the previous year’s progress toward ensuring all children have insurance coverage in our state. Last year was an uncommon year for health coverage in Arkansas, making it important that recent context is included in the […]

Arkansas’s Medicaid program helps keep our state’s labor force healthy. Having insurance protects part-time workers, caregivers, and lower-income families from financial hardship and provides peace of mind to many across the state. With insurance coverage, people can address health concerns early rather than going without until they require emergency care. Our Medicaid expansion program for […]

A Blueprint for the Future DOWNLOAD THIS PUBLICATION If Arkansas is to reduce poverty and increase opportunity for its children and families, we must reduce the state’s teen birth rate. To do that, we have to change what we’re doing. A hodgepodge of local policies and inequitable education isn’t going to get us out of […]

Protecting Children’s Health Coverage in the Face of Major Challenges Arkansas has historically been a leader in children’s health coverage, with almost 95%  of our state’s children covered by health insurance. But we’re entering a critical period to hold the line on that good track record. With next month’s official end of policies designed to […]

Arkansas’s teen birth rate is the highest in the nation, but teenagers here aren’t any more sexually active here than they are in other states. The difference is access to contraceptives, especially the most effective kind, and lack of information because sex education isn’t required here. Data show that the great majority of teen pregnancies […]

Babies need their mothers; children need their parents. Everyone should have the opportunity to raise their children and live out their full life expectancy. However, this opportunity is denied many babies and their mothers due to the mother’s death following childbirth. In this brief we discuss the need for Arkansas Medicaid to extend maternity coverage […]

The state of Black women’s health is in critical condition, due to the systemic racism, discrimination, and implicit bias that Black women face within the health care system. To combat the intersecting factors that create an inequitable health care experience for Black women, the following aggressive strategies must be implemented. Create policies with an intentional […]

The state of Black women’s health is in critical condition, due to the systemic racism, discrimination, and implicit bias that Black women face within the health care system. To combat the intersecting factors that create an inequitable health care experience for Black women, aggressive strategies must be implemented. This brief will provide an overview of […]

Arkansans want what’s best for our children. We all want kids to have happy, healthy lives. Access to affordable medical care is an important part of overall health, and each Arkansan should have access to health care. But, as shown in the data in this report, Arkansas is getting further from the Finish Line of […]