Medicaid is the single largest provider of health insurance for individuals and families across the nation. Across all Medicaid programs in our state, more than 850,000 Arkansans receive services covered by Medicaid. In a deeply rural state, Medicaid plays a particularly important role in ensuring access to health care where many residents face barriers such […]

We Cannot Stop Until Every Child Has Health Insurance All Arkansans want our children to grow up healthy, safe, and supported. For more than two decades, Arkansas has worked to expand access to health coverage as a foundation for child well-being. ARKids First has helped hundreds of thousands of families access the care they need, […]

In 2024, Arkansas Advocates held a series of focus groups with women around the state who were pregnant or had recently given birth. The corresponding white paper, Arkansas’s Maternal Health Crisis: Women Across the State Share their Experiences and Views, explores common themes Arkansas Advocates staff heard from our focus group participants. One clear takeaway […]

As we honor veterans this week, it’s important to remember that they often have complex health needs when they return home from their service. In Arkansas, our Medicaid program provides critical access to health services for veterans – a fact that is often overlooked in health coverage conversations. In fact, when Arkansas expanded Medicaid 10 […]

Arkansas Not on Track for Insurance Coverage for Arkansas’s Children Every year, our Finish Line report provides a snapshot of the previous year’s progress toward ensuring all children have insurance coverage in our state. Last year was an uncommon year for health coverage in Arkansas, making it important that recent context is included in the […]

Arkansas’s Medicaid program helps keep our state’s labor force healthy. Having insurance protects part-time workers, caregivers, and lower-income families from financial hardship and provides peace of mind to many across the state. With insurance coverage, people can address health concerns early rather than going without until they require emergency care. Our Medicaid expansion program for […]

A Blueprint for the Future DOWNLOAD THIS PUBLICATION If Arkansas is to reduce poverty and increase opportunity for its children and families, we must reduce the state’s teen birth rate. To do that, we have to change what we’re doing. A hodgepodge of local policies and inequitable education isn’t going to get us out of […]

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 […]