ACHI President and CEO Dr. Joe Thompson and others discuss the impact the Affordable Care Act has had in Arkansas, and the political football the law has become, in an Arkansas Business cover story.
The story looks at how the law has cut Arkansas’s uninsured rate in half, barred insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, allowed young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance policies up to age 26, and helped nearly all rural hospitals in the state keep their doors open by reducing uncompensated care costs.
Also discussed are the political wrangling over the law and the potential impact if a ruling by a federal judge in Texas striking down the law were to be upheld with, as is currently the case, no replacement healthcare law in place.
“Arkansans could lose coverage, and treatment of chronic conditions would stop. It’s easy to express support for people with pre-existing conditions, but there has to be a political vehicle to keep those protections in place,” Dr. Thompson says in the story by Kyle Massey.
