The following article is from Arkansas Hospitals magazine, a custom publication of Vowell, Inc., which also produces Arkansas Money & Politics.
More than 60% of Arkansas children are covered by Medicaid (including ARKids A and B), according to a newly-released study conducted by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and the University of North Carolina’s NC Rural Health Research Program.
Arkansas leads the nation in the number of children covered under the program, followed by Mississippi, New Mexico, Florida and South Carolina.
The study used United States Census Bureau data to analyze Medicaid coverage of adults and children in rural areas between 2008 and 2015. Among other key findings, the study confirmed that Medicaid covers a larger share of children and families in small towns and rural areas than in large metropolitan areas.
It also found that the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is having a disproportionately positive impact on small towns and rural areas, with the rate of uninsured adults in expansion states decreasing by 11 percentage points in rural areas of these states overall.
