ATLANTA, GA — Georgia’s limited Medicaid program with work reporting requirements has underperformed on every front, and now the federal government is asking the public to weigh in on whether the state’s troubled program should be extended through 2030.
Launched in July 2023, the Pathways to Coverage program was designed to offer Medicaid coverage to low-income adults who could document and verify 80 hours of work, job training, volunteering, or other government-approved activity each month. A majority of potentially eligible Georgians are either employed themselves or are in a household with at least one worker. Yet, even those who meet the program criteria face a steep ‘paperwork’ burden.
Supporters call the program a bridge to health care and employment. But data from the program’s first year shows a different story:
- Only 7,000 people are enrolled. That’s just 3% of the number of uninsured Georgians with qualifying incomes.
- Of the more than 110,000 Georgians who indicated interest in applying to the program in the first year, only about 5% were able to navigate the full application process and enroll in the program.
- Georgia’s Pathways program has cost nearly $92 million in total funding (a little more than $13,000 per enrollee), with much of it going to administrative expenses like technology upgrades, not health care.
Now, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is reviewing Georgia’s request to extend Pathways and is accepting public comments through June 1. Health care advocates say the public has a critical opportunity to speak up against burdensome requirements that deny care to those who need it.