Senators Lincoln and Pryor and Congressmen Ross, Snyder, and Berry issued a joint announcement yesterday that the Arkansas Department of Health will receive a $400K grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand its capacity to deliver the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program. This money is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and it will allow the Department of Health to include an additional 500 people in the program. According to the linked article:
The Chronic Disease Self Management funds are part of HHS’s Communities Putting Prevention to Work Initiative, which is funded by the Recovery Act and aims to promote evidence-based prevention strategies in health care across the country.
Missing from the announcement, of course, is Congressman John Boozman (AR-03), who voted against the ARRA and against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Boozman also continues to urge Attorney General Dustin McDaniel to join other states in challenging the legality of the healthcare reform bill, though he claims to support “improving and reforming our health care system.” If that is true, one wonders why he wouldn’t at least join in the announcement of this grant money.
Oh, yeah, that’s right. That would require him to admit that — gasp! — maybe part of the ARRA was good for Arkansas. Can’t have that, can we, John?