The U.S. attorney's office has announced another indictment of a former state worker for defrauding money in operation of a feeding program for children.
Andy Allison, the former Arkansas Medicaid director who served as the principal policy architect and manager of the private option, has taken a job as a Senior Expert with McKinsey & Company, the prominent multinational consulting firm. Allison began last week, a little over six months after he left his post at the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
The latest enrollment numbers from DHS are out: more than 127,000 have gained coverage under the private option. That's 127,000 Arkansans who will lose their health insurance if a minority of the legislature gets their way and blocks the private option.
Opponents of the private option really, really don’t like the policy, which uses Medicaid funds to purchase private health insurance plans for low-income Arkansans.
Earlier this month, the Department of Human Services sent their request to the feds for a waiver of federal rules in order to proceed with the so-called “private option” for Medicaid expansion.
Also a good week for checking on corporate welfare, and a bad week for crops and cattle, the gas tax drive, interstate traffic and the state Game and Fish Commission.