In 2000, Arkansas received HRSA SPG funding to study the health insurance status of Arkansans and to develop options to expand coverage for the uninsured. The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI) was designated as the state's lead agency for the grant.

In 2001, ACHI conducted the first statewide Survey of Health Insurance Status and in 2005 conducted a second survey. The 2005 Arkansas Fact Book: A Profile of the Uninsured, published in September 2005, provides a comparative analysis between the two surveys and data on how many Arkansans currently lack health insurance coverage.

ACHI's Arkansas Health Insurance Expansion Initiative Roundtable, which consists of 21 private-citizen members representing employers, consumers, and providers/health insurers was established in 2001 and has continued over the course of the grant with the specific goal of stabilizing and expanding health insurance coverage in Arkansas by evaluating health care financing options. The Roundtable wrote a report based on the 2001 survey results and included recommendations for coverage expansion options, including support for local employer-based health insurance purchasing groups and expanded Medicaid eligibility for low-income pregnant women.

Learn more about the Arkansas state planning grant effort.

Application
Not available online

Arkansas Health Insurance Expansion Initiative 2001 Roundtable Report, October 2001

Arkansas Health Insurance Expansion Initiative Roundtable Report, March 2002

Interim Report to the Secretary: Overview of Arkansas Activities: 2004

Final Report to the Secretary, September 2006

2005 Arkansas Fact Book: A Profile of the Uninsured, September 2005

"Improving Health with Master Settlement Agreement Tobacco Dollars: The Arkansas Experience,"Health Affairs, Nov/Dec 2003.

"Using Telephone Interviews to Reduce Non-response Bias to Mail Surveys of Health Plan Members,"Medical Care, March 2002.

"Performance Indicators in Women's Health: Incorporating Women's Health in the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS),"Women's Health Issues, Jan/Feb 2002.