The Kochs have spoken. Their Americans for Prosperity chapter in Arkansas has formally announced opposition to the legislature approving the Obamacare-provided expansion of health care coverage under the Medicaid program. The AFP spent at least a million bucks, and related parties spent much more in other ways, influencing election of the majority-Republican legislature. So the announcement presumably has some influence.
LITTLE ROCK — After three and a half years of issue education on the President’s health care law, AFP-Arkansas announced its opposition to the proposed Arkansas Private Option Medicaid Expansion.
“As an organization that advocates for the states to be the innovators of reform, AFP has waited as legislators worked to try and change a broken Medicaid program,” stated Teresa Oelke, Arkansas State Director. “During these last five days we have seen numbers, details in actual legislation, and memos from the administration. It is clear that President Obama’s administration is not interested in reforming a broken program. They are interested only in expanding a broken program.”
“We applaud legislators efforts to try and overhaul a failed system that supplies poor access to health care and ran a billion dollar deficit over the last five years. However, passing a broken program onto 70,000 additional Arkansans is not the solution. Doing so with a price tag of $14.5 billion over ten years paid for by hardworking taxpayers only exacerbates our country’s problems.”