Arkansas health plan for poor to add limited federal costs: report

By Suzi Parker LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) – A cost analysis released on Monday shows that a state plan to move Medicaid-eligible low-income citizens into a "private option" under upcoming federal healthcare exchanges would result in little additional federal costs. "These estimates find that the private option can be fully funded with existing resources at the state level and would add less than 15 percent to federal health-care costs in Arkansas," the report said. "In some realistic scenarios, there could be no additional federal costs at all. …