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Georgians for a Healthy Future is frequently cited in news articles about health care issues, ensuring the consumer perspective is heard. Read news stories featuring Georgians for a Healthy Future’s perspective below.
2024
Enrollment in Georgia’s year-old limited Medicaid expansion program is well below expectations because of a cumbersome enrollment process and restrictive eligibility criteria, an Atlanta-based public policy group reported Tuesday.
Only 4,231 low-income Georgians were enrolled in the Georgia Pathways program as of the end of last month, well below the 25,000 the state Department of Community Health (DCH) had projected for its first year and even further behind the 240,485 individuals ages 19 through 64 with incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level, according to U.S. Census data from 2022.
Deanna Williams, a health insurance navigator for the nonprofit Georgians for a Healthy Future, said Georgia Pathways enrollees sometimes run afoul of the work requirement because their hours may differ from week to week, which can put them temporarily above the income-eligibility limit.
On Monday, the 1.3 million Georgians who bought health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace exchange, also known as Obamacare, can start window shopping for next year’s policy. But for the first time since the ACA went live over a decade ago, they will be blocked from doing so on the federal website healthcare.gov.
Instead, Georgia is launching its own marketplace for 2025 coverage: GeorgiaAccess.gov. Open enrollment begins Friday.
Georgians for a Healthy Future, a policy nonprofit, won a $1 million grant to provide navigators. It also is distributing information on the program through a statewide network of YMCAs.
Colbert said GHF was “cautiously optimistic.”
Whitney Griggs, who works on policy for GHF, said she hopes all Georgians can get unbiased help anywhere they shop.
“We don’t know how they’re going to play out in real time,” Griggs said.
For more than a decade, Georgians have been able to sign up for health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on the federal government’s healthcare.gov website.
That’s about to change. Starting Nov. 1, a new state-based exchange – Georgia Access – will replace healthcare.gov as Georgia becomes the 20th state to trade in the federal exchange for a state-specific model.
“The ACA envisioned that each state would operate their own exchange,” said Whitney Griggs, health policy director for the nonprofit Georgians for a Healthy Future. “States know best how to reach their residents. … (Georgia) has a real opportunity to create something better than healthcare.gov.”…
But Griggs said some aspects of ditching healthcare.gov for a state-based model are cause for concern. She said Georgia’s decision to sign up enrollees to Georgia Access through web brokers or insurance companies as well as the program’s own website could lead “bad actors” to enroll people in coverage plans that are not ACA-compliant.
“Other states are really pushing enrollment through their own websites,” Griggs said. “Georgia is going to be the only state relying on this model so heavily.”
As a plume of smoke from a chemical fire hangs over metro Atlanta, amid a state of emergency after deadly Hurricane Helene, and in the wake of a Covid surge that hit a new summer high, the Georgia Board of Public Health is absent from the public eye.
For the fifth month in a row, the board on Friday canceled its monthly meeting, which had been planned for Tuesday. No agenda had been posted and no explanation for the cancellation was given.
The nine-member board, which oversees and sets general policy for the Georgia Department of Public Health and its $800 million-plus annual budget, has met just three times this year, most recently in May, canceling seven meetings including October’s.
Georgia’s open meetings law requires boards and other agencies to hold regular meetings but also allows them to cancel and postpone them. Advocates of public health and open government say failing to meet regularly is a bad practice.
Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, ticked off many of the things going on right now, including a toxic gas release from the BioLab fire, Hurricane Helene relief, the highest rate of new HIV/AIDs cases in the country, and limited access to Covid vaccines for uninsured Georgians heading into peak respiratory virus season.
“These rankings and statistics seem to suggest we need more public health board meetings, discourse and planning, not less,” Colbert said, adding that the board’s absence highlights a lack of government accountability.
“Public agencies are accountable to the public that they serve … We are open to learning why the decrease in meeting frequency has emerged — perhaps there is a good reason,” Colbert said. “But communicating that reason is important, for good governance and good health.”
It’s been over a month since the FDA approved new Covid vaccines, but for uninsured and underinsured Atlantans who rely on the public health system to get the shots at low cost, the process is fraught with conflicting information and fluctuating supplies…
That uninsured Georgians have to cover any of the costs out of pocket is a health equity problem, said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, a nonprofit advocacy group.
“This imbalance unfairly leaves uninsured folks exposed to illnesses that others are protected from, putting their health and financial stability at risk,” she said.
Likewise, Fulton spokeswoman McCullough told Healthbeat the shots should cost only $21 for uninsured patients and the clinics will not turn away anyone who is unable to pay.
Colbert said even $21 is too much.
“For families already struggling to make ends meet, an administration fee for a vaccine may make the difference between getting protected or going without it,” Colbert said. “This means more Georgians will be at greater risk of getting sick, missing work, and losing wages they can’t afford to lose.”
It’s an increasingly difficult time to be young in America. Mental health challenges among children and teens are skyrocketing, and Georgia is no exception. According to the CDC, in 2021, 42% of young people experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness—a figure that has doubled over the past decade.
To move from awareness to action, here are some steps you can take to support youth mental health in Georgia. Whether you’re a parent, advocate, employer, or community member, your involvement can make a difference:
Learn more: Explore child and adolescent youth mental health issues through organizations like Resilient Georgia, Strong4Life of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (available in Spanish), and GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students.
Engage with legislators: Talk to your elected officials about supporting bold actions for mental health care in Georgia. Find your legislator to start the conversation. You can also join with policy leaders like Georgians for a Healthy Future.
On a recent summer evening, Raymia Taylor wandered into a recreation center in a historical downtown neighborhood, the only enrollee to attend a nearly two-hour event for people who have signed up for Georgia’s experimental Medicaid expansion.
The state launched the program in July 2023, requiring participants to document that they’re working, studying, or doing other qualifying activities for 80 hours a month in exchange for health coverage. At the event, booths were set up to help people join the Marines or pursue a GED diploma.
“It’s not an easy, ‘Oh, I want to apply for Pathways,’” said Deanna Williams, who helps people enroll in insurance plans at Georgians for a Healthy Future, a consumer advocacy group. People generally learn about the program after being denied other Medicaid coverage, she said.
In the online application, people click through pages of questions before they’re shown a screen with information about Pathways, Williams said. Then they must check a box and sign a form saying they understand the program’s requirements. Sometimes the Pathways application doesn’t pop up, and she must start over. The process to apply is “not smooth,” she said.
The state agency that runs Georgia Medicaid is going all out to increase enrollment in Gov. Brian Kemp’s limited Medicaid expansion initiative beyond the paltry numbers who signed up during its first year.
The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) launched a $10.7 million ad campaign this month to call attention to the Georgia Pathways program, complete with a new website (pathways.georgia.gov) that explains the initiative, who is eligible to sign up, and how to apply.
“We cheer the meaningful increases in private health insurance enrollment among Georgians,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future. “But that does not resolve the larger issue at hand. Hundreds of thousands of Georgians remain uninsured and without meaningful access to health care until Georgia leaders fully close our state’s coverage gap.”
Critics continue to say the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program falls short of expectations, but proponents say Georgia’s cumulative approach puts more people on private health insurance plans.
Less than 4,500 Georgians enrolled in Georgia Pathways to Coverage as of mid-June.
“Every Georgian deserves access to affordable health care,” Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, said in a recent announcement. “Unfortunately, the Pathways to Coverage program is falling far short of that vision for our state. “Unfair paperwork requirements and other bureaucratic hurdles are keeping hard-working Georgians from getting covered,” Colbert added. “It’s time to remove these barriers to health coverage for uninsured Georgians, and to look at broader solutions to closing the coverage gap.”