David Ramsey and I are sending feelers around today. It’s hard to separate fact from spin, but it is fair to say there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes drama in progress about the special legislative session scheduled for this week.
At the core of current furious back-channel discussions is the fight over managed care for aspects of Medicaid services and Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s insistence on his plan over that preferred by some legislators and lobbyists in the health care business. Hanging over the outcome of that fight is the future of the bigger fight on continuation of the Obamacare-financed Medicaid expansion (aka private option; aka Arkansas Works.)
Nothing less than the continuation of state government at its current size is at stake. Stay tuned.