Dear Governor Hutchinson,
Arkansas should stop kicking people off health insurance programs, even though the vast majority remain eligible. Nearly 50,000 Arkansans are blindsided now that they cannot fill their prescriptions or see their doctors despite working hard to play by the rules.
A private company would not cut off basic cable or telephone service with one notice and a 10-day demand -- yet you are cutting off life-saving health care coverage in this poorly conceived process.
You can imagine the shock a family has when they lose coverage because they did not notice a poorly defined piece of mail and failed to respond within the Department of Human Services’s unreasonable 10-day demand.
Worse yet you can imagine their shock when someone loses their insurance even after doing everything they can to comply.
Arkansas families’ health and financial security is in jeopardy. But Governor you have the power to change it.
Please Governor, give people 60 days, if not the full 90 allowed by law, to respond. Please make sure DHS is prepared to handle the task before you start punishing Arkansas families. And please immediately reinstate coverage for all of those who’ve lost it through this unfair process until the State can find an effective and just way to verify income.
Arkansas leads the nation in reducing the percentage of people who are uninsured because of the unique bipartisan support that makes Medicaid and the Private Option Health Insurance plan work.
This success should be built on, not sabotaged. Don’t jeopardize our progress and our families for the sake of politics.
Sincerely, the below signed citizens of Arkansas.