From shoring up rural hospitals to providing health insurance to unemployed Arkansans during a pandemic, the first decade of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has changed our state’s health care system for the better. Our new policy brief outlines the myriad ways the ACA has improved health care for individuals, hospitals and the overall state economy. In […]

In our annual Finish Line report, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families looks at the status of health care coverage for Arkansas’s children and families. The report examines changes over the years and recommends actions to get Arkansas to The Finish Line: 100 percent coverage of Arkansas’s kids. Between 2017 and 2018, Arkansas slightly improved the […]

Arkansans kicked off Arkansas Works health insurance should reapply for coverage. In our third and final brief examining the work reporting requirements placed on Arkansas Works Medicaid enrollees, we find confusion, complications and long-lasting consequences of the now-disallowed policy. More than 18,000 low-income Arkansans lost their health insurance between September 1 and December 31, 2018, for failing to […]

by John Cook, Ph.D., M.A.Ed., Research Scientist and Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch; Richard Sheward, MPP, Deputy Director of Innovative Partnerships, Children’s HealthWatch; Bruno Showers, Senior Policy Analyst, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families; and Eduardo Ochoa, Jr., MD, Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and Children’s HealthWatch conducted a Health Impact Assessment to estimate […]

Our annual Finish Line report looks at the status of health care coverage for Arkansas’s children and families. The report examines changes over the years and recommends actions to get Arkansas to The Finish Line: 100 percent coverage of Arkansas’s kids. Alarmingly, the data show a reversal in the trend of increasing coverage of children […]

Thousands of Arkansans who aren’t required to work to be eligible for Medicaid are losing their coverage because they failed to report or report adequately their exemption.

Arkansas has been in the national news a lot this year for a major change to our health care system. While the disenrollment of nearly 17,000 Arkansas Works beneficiaries is newsworthy, there is another major change underway that’s not received much media attention or public scrutiny. Last year, Arkansas lawmakers passed Act 775, which creates […]

Nearly 8,500 Arkansans lose health care coverage, with more losses expected each month A new brief from Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families highlights that few people got new jobs, while many lost health insurance, as a result of the Arkansas Works work-reporting requirement. Each month the state releases a data report that tracks the […]

In June 2018, Arkansas became the first state to officially implement a requirement to work in a Medicaid expansion program – known here in Arkansas as Arkansas Works. Some Arkansas Works enrollees began reporting work activities or exemptions in June. By the end of the year, all Arkansas Works enrollees ages 30 to 49 will be […]

Across the board, our black men and boys encounter significant barriers. They face a higher rate of infant mortality, child poverty, and incarceration than their white peers. They also have lower high school graduation rates and family income levels. These outcomes are a result of decades of policy decisions that negatively impacted black Arkansans. This […]