Protecting Children’s Health Coverage in the Face of Major Challenges Arkansas has historically been a leader in children’s health coverage, with almost 95%  of our state’s children covered by health insurance. But we’re entering a critical period to hold the line on that good track record. With next month’s official end of policies designed to […]

Arkansas’s teen birth rate is the highest in the nation, but teenagers here aren’t any more sexually active here than they are in other states. The difference is access to contraceptives, especially the most effective kind, and lack of information because sex education isn’t required here. Data show that the great majority of teen pregnancies […]

Babies need their mothers; children need their parents. Everyone should have the opportunity to raise their children and live out their full life expectancy. However, this opportunity is denied many babies and their mothers due to the mother’s death following childbirth. In this brief we discuss the need for Arkansas Medicaid to extend maternity coverage […]

The state of Black women’s health is in critical condition, due to the systemic racism, discrimination, and implicit bias that Black women face within the health care system. To combat the intersecting factors that create an inequitable health care experience for Black women, the following aggressive strategies must be implemented. Create policies with an intentional […]

The state of Black women’s health is in critical condition, due to the systemic racism, discrimination, and implicit bias that Black women face within the health care system. To combat the intersecting factors that create an inequitable health care experience for Black women, aggressive strategies must be implemented. This brief will provide an overview of […]

Arkansans want what’s best for our children. We all want kids to have happy, healthy lives. Access to affordable medical care is an important part of overall health, and each Arkansan should have access to health care. But, as shown in the data in this report, Arkansas is getting further from the Finish Line of […]

From shoring up rural hospitals to providing health insurance to unemployed Arkansans during a pandemic, the first decade of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has changed our state’s health care system for the better. Our new policy brief outlines the myriad ways the ACA has improved health care for individuals, hospitals and the overall state economy. In […]

In our annual Finish Line report, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families looks at the status of health care coverage for Arkansas’s children and families. The report examines changes over the years and recommends actions to get Arkansas to The Finish Line: 100 percent coverage of Arkansas’s kids. Between 2017 and 2018, Arkansas slightly improved the […]

Arkansans kicked off Arkansas Works health insurance should reapply for coverage. In our third and final brief examining the work reporting requirements placed on Arkansas Works Medicaid enrollees, we find confusion, complications and long-lasting consequences of the now-disallowed policy. More than 18,000 low-income Arkansans lost their health insurance between September 1 and December 31, 2018, for failing to […]

by John Cook, Ph.D., M.A.Ed., Research Scientist and Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch; Richard Sheward, MPP, Deputy Director of Innovative Partnerships, Children’s HealthWatch; Bruno Showers, Senior Policy Analyst, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families; and Eduardo Ochoa, Jr., MD, Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and Children’s HealthWatch conducted a Health Impact Assessment to estimate […]