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Legislative update: Week 3

In this week’s update:

• Governor Kemp’s State of the State address
• Legislation GHF is keeping up with! 
• The General Assembly 2023 calendar
• Advocacy events for your calendar
• GHF’s got you covered this session!

GOVERNOR KEMP TALKS HEALTH CAREIN STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

Governor Kemp addresses legislators in the State of State address

On Wednesday, Governor Kemp addressed the General Assembly in his annual State of the State address. Per tradition, he used the opportunity to point to important items in his proposed budget and lay out his priorities for 2023. While much of the speech was focused on addressing crime and public safety, he did devote a portion to health care.

Towards the end of his address, Governor Kemp promoted his Pathways to Coverage program (aka “Pathways”), which is a partial Medicaid expansion. He confirmed that the program will begin July 1, 2023. Georgians between the age of 19-64 with incomes at or below the poverty level will be eligible to enroll in Medicaid if they meet stringent work and premium requirements. According to the Governor’s office, 345,000 Georgians could qualify for coverage under Pathways, but estimates by his own Department of Community Health say less than 90,000 people will gain coverage. 

Gov. Kemp also described the improvements that Georgia has seen in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace over the last several years. Since 2019, the number of Georgians enrolled in ACA coverage has more than doubled and the choice of insurance companies has expanded from four to ten. These successes are the result of several factors: the additional financial help approved by Congress in 2019 and 2022 to lower premiums for ACA consumers; the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to uphold the ACA for the third time; insurers’ subsequent confidence that the ACA would remain the law of the land; and Georgia’s reinsurance program to lower premiums (and re-assure insurers) starting in 2022.

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: WEEK 2

The 2023 legislative session has begun

The Georgia General Assembly convened Monday, Jan. 9th to officially kick off the 40-day legislative session. 

The following day, as Georgians celebrated UGA’s national football championship win, GHF held Health Care Unscrambled 2023 and released our 2023-2024 policy priorities. Thank you to those who attended HCU! To revisit HCU 2023 or see what you missed, check out our recap and materials here.

The General Assembly reconvened Wednesday through Friday, completing the first four days of the session. Days 1-4 sped by quickly. Members were sworn in and legislative leaders hammered out the schedule for this year’s session which you can access here. (It’s rare–and very helpful!–for the full calendar to be set so early in session.)  Despite being new in their roles, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Speaker Burns wasted no time in putting their stamps on the Senate and House respectively as they re-shaped committees and re-assigned committee leaders. For more information about the new committees and committee leaders, scroll down to New Leaders, New Committees.

On Friday, January 13th, Governor Kemp released his proposals for the current state budget (FY 2023 Amended) and next year’s budget (FY 2024 General). We featured some highlights for you below.

Last week began with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and continued as “budget week”. House and Senate Appropriations Committee members held joint hearings during which state agency leaders presented their budget requests and reviewed agency spending. 

The General Assembly will reconvene today, Jan. 23rd for the fifth official day of legislative session. 

In July 2022, GHF’s Board of Directors and staff launched our 2022-2026 strategic plan–an ambitious blueprint for our next four years as an organization. Guided by this living document, GHF will deepen our focus on health equity; champion community-led change; build a healthy, resilient organization; and lead advocacy to strengthen Georgia’s public health systems and workforce.

This is the final blog in a four-blog series from GHF’s Executive Director Laura Colbert spotlighting each of our new strategic goals. If you missed the previous blogs, you can read about our goals related to health equity, community-led change, and building a resilient organization on our blogs.

Strategic goal #4: Strengthen public health infrastructure in Georgia by advocating for increased state funding, workforce capacity, and effective action by public health agencies. 

(Don’t miss GHF’s Say “Yes” for Public Health petition to show your support for public health workers, programs, and agencies here in Georgia!)

Thanks to a move by the Biden administration, 206,000 more Georgia families will qualify for financial help to purchase health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (also called Obamacare). The “family glitch” has plagued working families whose jobs offer affordable coverage for the worker but not for their family members. With the new federal fix, the family glitch will no longer stand between Georgia’s working families and the affordable health coverage and care they deserve.

In July, GHF’s Board of Directors and staff launched our new 2022-2026 strategic plan–an ambitious blueprint for our next four years as an organization. Guided by this living document, GHF will deepen our focus on health equity; champion community-led change; build a healthy, resilient organization; and lead advocacy to strengthen Georgia’s public health systems and workforce.

In a series of four blogs, GHF’s Executive Director Laura Colbert spotlights each of our new strategic goals. If you missed her first two blogs, you can read about our goals related to health equity here and community-led change here. 

Strategic Goal #3: The people and programs that make up GHF have the financial resources and supporting policies/practices to be sustainable and resilient in the face of change. 

​​Every person who calls Georgia home deserves to live healthy and thrive. While Georgia has made recent strides to improve the health of our residents, we haven’t yet reached that goal according to Georgians themselves and our state’s health data.

To help state and community leaders make effective and informed decisions about the health and well-being of Georgians, Georgians for a Healthy Future created the illustrated What the health, Georgia guide. This publication is intended to be a reference that decision makers can go back to again and again as they consider new health laws and policies and determine how to invest public funds in health care and public health.

Download a copy of What the Health, Georgia here! 

In July, GHF’s Board of Directors and staff launched our new 2022-2026 strategic plan–an ambitious blueprint for our next four years as an organization. Guided by this living document, GHF will deepen our focus on health equity; champion community-led change; build a healthy, resilient organization; and lead advocacy to strengthen Georgia’s public health systems and workforce.

In a series of four blogs, GHF’s Executive Director Laura Colbert spotlights each of our new strategic goals. If you missed her first blog on GHF’s health equity goals, you can catch up here.

Strategic Goal #2: GHF meaningfully and consistently engages with communities and individuals in ways that amplify their voices and experiences to achieve policy change. 

Last month, GHF’s Board of Directors and staff launched our new 2022-2026 strategic plan–an ambitious blue print for our next four years as an organization. Guided by this living document, GHF will deepen our focus on health equity; champion community-led change; build a healthy, resilient organization; and lead advocacy to strengthen Georgia’s public health systems and workforce.

In a series of four blogs, GHF’s Executive Director Laura Colbert spotlights each of our new strategic goals. First up: health equity!

Strategic Goal #1: GHF is recognized as a leading statewide organization working to advance health equity.

Since 2021, Georgia Watch, Georgians for a Healthy Future (GHF), and SOWEGA Rising have worked to protect consumers in Southwest Georgia from unaffordable medical bills and debt through the Community Benefit and Economic Stability – Georgia (CBES-GA) project with support from leading health advocacy organization, Community Catalyst. Southwest Georgia experiences medical debt at a higher rate than the rest of Georgia and the country, particularly in communities of color. Southwest Georgia also has some of the highest insurance premiums in the country due primarily to the lack of competition among providers and insurers. This level of consolidation leaves consumers with little choice about where to seek care and incentivizes predatory medical billing practices. In Dougherty County, 25% of black residents have a medical bill in collections, compared to 21% in Georgia and 17% nationally (Urban Institute, 2020), creating significant barriers to care and trapping already cash-strapped Georgians into a cycle of poverty.  

“The medical debt burden disproportionately impacts black and brown people due to unfair and discriminatory barriers to health coverage and economic security, noted Sherrell Byrd, Executive Director of SOWEGA Rising. “Particularly in rural Georgia, you will see the highest rates of medical bills which drives up insurance costs, creating barriers to people who have to choose between paying bills and seeking necessary medical care.” 

Leveraging the policy expertise of Georgia Watch and GHF, as well as the local knowledge and community trust of SOWEGA Rising, the CBES-GA team has aimed to protect consumers in Southwest Georgia from unaffordable medical bills and debts so that all Georgians can afford the care they need. As this phase of the project winds down in the summer of 2022, we are reflecting upon all we have accomplished and how we will continue the work.

Treylin Cooley, GHF Health Insurance Navigator 

During this PRIDE month, GHF is highlighting the importance of ALL people receiving proper health care and specifically highlighting the importance of the LGBTQIA+ community receiving adequate and unbiased care. Equitable access to health care for all is a right, not a privilege, and this right must be protected and enforced. Marketplace insurance was created to address those specific needs of Americans.

Historically, the LGBTQIA+ community has faced many barriers with access to health care being one of them. Why has this been a challenge, you may ask. To begin, many health care providers and lawmakers are unaware of the unique medical needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. This has been one of the biggest reasons that proper health care has not been taken more seriously and then causes someone to shy away from seeking care.  However, as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I was fortunate enough to locate a provider who has done the work, created safe spaces for the LGBTQIA+ community, and offered individualized care. That was a breath of fresh air for me and I was once again excited about my health care. I was able to speak with providers who understood the social determinants of  health, and I was able to talk to my provider about my specific needs in a comfortable space.

Our community has unique health care needs; from needing specialized care for individuals living the trans experience to those needing to be prescribed the correct antiretroviral medications in order to continue to thrive with HIV. In addition, the myths and stereotypes that have been associated with the community have been major factors in molding the thoughts and opinions of both health care providers and lawmakers. This limited the innovative approaches that health care providers and lawmakers could implement to address those unique health care needs. However, marketplace insurance has been paramount in changing how many services are rendered. It has prevented individuals from being denied health insurance for having pre-existing conditions, prevented policies from getting canceled based on an individual’s age and limited the maximum amount of out-of-pocket costs an individual can be charged, as well as other protections. Marketplace insurance made me hopeful again that I could receive adequate and affordable health care.

As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I take my health care very seriously. As a result, during the time I was uninsured, I chose to enroll in Marketplace insurance. This was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. I was, indeed, skeptical at first. However, the navigator who assisted me was very knowledgeable, patient, and walked me through the entire process.  Even when I was enrolling, one of my biggest fears was being able to afford the insurance. My health insurance navigator quickly helped calm those fears. I qualified for the premium tax credits, and I was able to get an affordable monthly premium. In addition, I was able to enroll in a program that assisted with the cost of the premium payment as well.

During this PRIDE month, let us be intentional about championing for equitable health care. Everyone deserves to thrive.  I take PRIDE in my health, and Marketplace insurance is the reason. Sign up today so that you, too, can Protect Your Peach.