Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

New Program Geared For Children's Health

Because of a new program, many of Arkansas's children will now have medical coverage.

According to Jim Harris, director of press operations for the Governor's Office, Gov. Mike Huckabee and the General Assembly took $11 million from the state's surplus to create ARKids, a new program to provide Medicaid benefits to children of working parent(s) with incomes up to 200 percent above the poverty line.

Harris said there are many in the public who think those on welfare are too lazy to work. But, when the legislature began looking at welfare reform, it was learned many stay on welfare to get Medicaid coverage for their children.

If a welfare recipient took a minimum wage job, Harris said, they would lose these benefits. This would mean their children couldn't get proper health care.

ARKids, he said, was put into effect as a way of welfare reform.

Usually, Harris said, parents with no insurance wait until their children are critical before taking them to an emergency room for medical attention. Then, they are not able to pay the ER bills. This results in higher medical costs to everyone.

ARKids, however, will eliminate this problem and allow people to have primary care physicians for their children. This also means the children can get immunized.

For every $1 spent in preventative medicine, Harris said, $10 is saved for each child.

Additionally, the program will help alleviate some of the pressures on emergency rooms.

"Healthy children," Harris said, "are more likely and able to stay in school. They can get a good education, good jobs and be productive.

"This program makes Arkansas No. 1 in the nation in taking care of its children." The state formerly ranked 43rd.

He said ARKids covers all illnesses.

"The governor is most proud of that piece of legislation of all passed during the session," Harris said.

Also, the governor's wife, Janet, is deeply involved, heading up the immunization effort.

Before the session started, Harris said, Gov. Huckabee was 99 percent sure he would run for the office of governor in 1998.

However, because of the productivity of the session, Harris said, the governor has changed this to 99.9 percent surety of a run.

This should help end speculation Huckabee will be seeking Sen. Dale Bumpers' seat in the U.S. Senate.

According to Harris, there were two things the governor was unable to accomplish: the charter school program and the food tax.

The food tax was dropped by the governor before the session started, but as it wound down, Harris said, the concept began to look good.