- June 25, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
A new study that shows a 26% rise in Arkansas children without health insurance garnered responses from the seven candidates running for governor in 2022.
Earlier this week, the KIDS COUNT Data Book produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation reported that 43,000 Arkansas children were without health insurance in 2019 compared to 34,000 in 2018.
Some potential reasons for the dramatic downturn include complications surrounding Arkansas’ work requirement to receive Medicaid expansion insurance and hesitancy among immigrant families to sign up for publicly-assisted health insurance due to the Trump administration’s efforts to alter immigration policy.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson disputed those possibilities and said the state is heading in a better direction on children’s health when looking at more recent data. He agreed that some minority communities have seen decreases in coverage.
“There is no data to tie children insurance rates to the work…
