State Capitol Week in Review

September 19, 2025

LITTLE ROCK – Last year about 173,000 Arkansans spent more than 265 million hours taking care of family members or friends who were suffering from Alzheimer’s. They were not paid for those hours.

Measured another way, that amount of care would have cost $5.4 billion if government or private insurance had paid for it.

An estimated 60,400 people in Arkansas have Alzheimer’s, which represents 11.3 percent of the population older than 65. The deaths of 1,577 people in 2022 can be directly attributed to Alzheimer’s, making it seventh on state Health Department’s list of leading causes of death.

The effect on caregivers can be overwhelming, according to a report presented to the state Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Advisory Council. Almost 70 percent of caregivers have chronic health conditions and more than 30 percent report that they must cope with depression. More than 18 percent of caregivers are themselves in poor physical health.

The Council is composed of private citizens with expertise on the topic, and co-chaired by a senator and a member of the House of Representatives. At a meeting in the Capitol, members reviewed their 2025 annual report.

Providing care to people with Alzheimer’s and dementia is a growing public policy concern for legislators because of its financial cost. For example, last fiscal year the state Medicaid program spent $492 million on care for people with Alzheimer’s. The legislature considered several proposals to improve early diagnosis and treatment, but they were put off because of concerns about their potential fiscal impact.

One measure would have mandated insurance coverage of assessments of the cognitive functions for certain patients. It was still in committee when the legislative session ended.

Another measure would have created income tax credits for the expenses of caregivers, and it also was still in committee when the session ended. The Department of Finance and Administration did a fiscal impact in which it estimated that 13.9 percent of the population of Arkansas provided unpaid care for loved ones.

The fiscal impact suggested amendments to the proposal in order to clarify questions that would certainly arise, such as how to provide tax credits to several different family members who claim a credit for the care of the same person.

A federal pilot project has provided some grant money for respite services that provide relief for caregivers, with about a third of the funding going into rural areas. According to a policy analyst at the Council, making the project into a permanent program would greatly help patients with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.

Re-entry Training

Little Rock has received $4 million from the federal government for workforce training of inmates, to better prepare them to be productive after they get out of prison. Some of the money will pay for job training, some will pay the salaries of staff who will run the program and some funding will subsidize the salaries of about 200 inmates who participate.

Training will focus on construction, transportation, hospitality and advanced manufacturing. Every county jail in Arkansas has a stake in the success of the program because prison overcrowding affects the operations of county jails, due to the backup of inmates for whom there is no space in a state prison unit.