KUAR | By Daniel Breen
Advocates for access to affordable healthcare are celebrating the 57th anniversary of the Medicaid program.
Organizers with Arkansas Community Organizations on Wednesday delivered cupcakes to employees of the state Department of Human Services in recognition of the key program. It began under President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 and now serves as many as 74 million low-income and disabled Americans.
Speaking outside the office on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Little Rock, the group's Loriee Evans said it’s important to celebrate the program which provides healthcare coverage for roughly a third of all Arkansans. Evans says as many as 300,000 of the roughly 1 million Arkansans receiving Medicaid could lose coverage if the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ends in October.
Daniel Breen/KUAR News
Volunteers with Arkansas Community Organizations hold signs Wednesday celebrating the anniversary of Medicaid in front of the Arkansas Department of Human Services office on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Little Rock.