ATLANTA — Georgians for a Healthy Future issues the following statement in response to the U.S. House of Representatives passing a budget resolution that puts Medicaid funding at serious risk, and thus the health and financial security of Georgia families at serious risk:
“Medicaid provides quality health insurance for 2 million Georgians, including 41% of Georgia’s children, nearly half of all births, and three in ten people with disabilities,” said Laura Colbert, Executive Director of Georgians for a Healthy Future. “Slashing Medicaid funding would mean more parents unable to get care for their sick children, people with disabilities unable to secure the care and services they need to live, and rural hospitals pushed closer to closure.”
The House’s budget resolution lays the groundwork for harmful cuts to Medicaid. Any cuts to Medicaid would jeopardize care for children, seniors, people with disabilities, and rural communities. State leaders would be forced to reduce what services Medicaid covers for Georgians, lower already-lean payments to providers, and eventually cut back on who can qualify for Medicaid. Cuts would threaten Georgia’s already strained health care system.
Medicaid brings in $11.4 billion in federal funding annually, keeping the doors open to hospitals and doctors’ offices across the state. It is essential to keeping Georgia families covered and healthy, our health care system functioning, and our state economy moving.
Congress’s budget proposal pairs Medicaid cuts with proposed cuts to other programs that provide families with child care, food, and economic security. Together these changes would destabilize families and make it harder for Georgians to afford the health care, groceries, and rent that they need to thrive.
Instead of putting Georgia families at risk, Congress should strengthen and modernize Medicaid – not slash it to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy. Georgians for a Healthy Future urges Congress to reject these dangerous cuts and ensure that the final budget protects the health and well-being of Georgia families and communities.
Georgians must make their voices heard. Call Senators Ossoff and Warnock today and tell them: Protect our health care. Protect our families. Reject these harmful cuts.