An Arkansas Solution to a National Problem (Davy Carter Commentary)

Arkansans are innovative people. From farmers who engineer their own equipment when there are no other options to entrepreneurs like J.B. Hunt and Sam Walton who used groundbreaking concepts to build Fortune 500 companies, our state is embedded with a history of innovation.  In that same innovative spirit, for the past four years, Arkansas has become a national leader in health care policy. In fact, Arkansas is a shining example of what states can accomplish in health care if given enough flexibility and control over designing programs that best serve their citizens. Today, Congress is once again considering potential changes to our nation's health care system that put the innovative efforts of a number of states like Arkansas in a precarious place. In 2013, when the Arkansas General Assembly began addressing how the Affordable Care Act would impact our state, the matter was at its height of political polarization. To say the debate was a challenge would be a massive understatement, and without the political courage of many we would be left today continuing to build on a flawed health care system with even more controls from the federal government. To be sure, the easy way out of the unpopular federal law was to just say "no." As with most complex issues, things aren't that easy, and Arkansans deserved better.  Just saying "no" would have done nothing to protect Arkansans from the mandates, higher taxes and regulatory burdens of the health care law. If there are dou...
Source: Arkansas Business - Health Care - Category: American Health Source Type: news