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Event Highlights

Health Care Unscrambled 2026 featured:

• Keynote address from Katie Keith, JD, MPH, one of the nation's foremost Affordable Care Act experts, who delivered a powerful analysis of the coverage crisis facing Georgia families as a result of H.R.1
• Powerful video testimonials from Georgians sharing how premium increases are forcing impossible choices between health coverage and financial security
• Bipartisan legislative panel with Senate Democratic Leader Harold Jones and House Appropriations Chair Mark Newton (both from the Richmond County/Augusta region), who engaged in frank dialogue about Medicaid expansion, state premium assistance, and rural hospital sustainability
• Concrete policy solutions, including GHF's forthcoming actuarial analysis of a state premium affordability program

About the Event

Health Care Unscrambled is Georgians for a Healthy Future's annual brunch-style event that brings together state leaders, health advocates, community members, and national thought leaders for bipartisan discussions on Georgia's healthcare challenges and opportunities for progress.

This year's convening came at a pivotal moment as preliminary data revealed 190,000 Georgians have disenrolled from private health insurance following premium increases after enhanced premium tax credits expired on December 31. Read more about this issue here.

Keynote Speaker: Katie Keith, JD, MPH

Katie Keith is the founding director of the Center for Health Policy and the Law at Georgetown University's O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. She is a nationally recognized expert on the Affordable Care Act, health insurance reforms, and expanding access to care. Through her Following the ACA series for Health Affairs, Katie helps make complex health policy issues clear and understandable for advocates, policymakers, and the public.

In her keynote address, Katie examined federal policy changes and their impact on Georgia. She highlighted that 2025 marked peak enrollment under the Affordable Care Act, with Georgia seeing particularly dramatic gains. Over the last five years, enrollment increased by 228% to 1.5 million Georgians, or 13% of the state's population. However, the loss of enhanced premium tax credits, combined with new federal restrictions through federal rules and H.R.1, threatens to reverse these gains.

Key takeaways from her presentation:

• Nearly 500,000 Georgians could become uninsured by 2034 due to federal policy changes
• Georgia could lose nearly $14 million in user fees for 2026, an important funding source for our state marketplace
• Rural counties face nearly $626 million in health care funding losses
• State policymakers have concrete tools available, including leveraging Georgia Access's flexibility to offer state-specific affordability programs, streamlining enrollment processes, and investing in consumer outreach

Learn more about Katie's work: Katie Keith, O'Neill Institute
Katie's presentation slides

Legislative Panel Discussion

State lawmakers Rep. Mark Newton (District 127) and Sen. Harold Jones (District 22) joined Whitney Griggs, GHF's Director of Health Policy, for a candid discussion on the legislature's priorities for addressing Georgia's health care challenges. The conversation covered:

• Health coverage affordability and Georgia Access's enrollment decline of nearly 200,000 people
• The impact of H.R. 1 (One Big Beautiful Bill) on Georgia's coverage landscape and provider finances
• The Rural Health Transformation Program and how Georgia can use $218.8 million in federal funding effectively
• Mental health parity enforcement following the Insurance Commissioner's recent $25 million in fines

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