“If today’s court ruling stands and the Governor moves forward with his plan,” wrote GHF director Laura Colbert, “most of the uninsured Georgians who keep our communities moving will still have no meaningful pathway to health coverage. Nine in ten of those Georgians will still be uninsured without meaningful access to a doctor. Our rural hospitals will continue to struggle to keep their doors open.”

“The Governor will spend three times more per person than is necessary,” she said, referring to the federal contribution, “leaving billions of dollars on the table that are meant to improve health care access for Georgians.”

The waiver would have shut the door on the most popular pathway for enrollment – healthcare.gov, said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future.

“Consumers will have all doors open to them this fall,” Colbert said Tuesday.

“Governor Kemp’s plan to shut down the most popular enrollment pathway for Georgians buying their own health insurance is a gamble,” betting that people won’t give up on shopping for insurance entirely, said Laura Colbert, director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, an organization that supports the ACA and Medicaid expansion.

Colbert said that the plan the feds requested “simply asked that Georgia better detail its ‘outreach and communications plan, including planned funding, a spend plan, and additional information on engagement with underserved communities.’” but that Georgia had refused to do that. “After spending $31 million and ‘thousands of hours of staff time’ on the planning and implementation of Governor Kemp’s signature health care policy, surely the state has these plans in place already and the plans would be easy to share.”

“Congress must focus on a package that includes a continuation of the American Rescue Plan enhanced premium tax credits, and it’s imperative that a coverage gap fix be attached to that,” said Knetta Adkins, organizing manager with Georgians for a Healthy Future.

“Under the current law, these provisions will sunset in 2023 if they are not expanded, resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs for enrollees and an increase in the number of uninsured,” she said.

Any plan that would meaningfully disrupt health insurance for hundreds of thousands of people across the state should be carefully considered, Laura Colbert, the executive director of the group Georgians for a Healthy Future, says.

“I urge Gov. Kemp to take this opportunity to reconsider the Georgia Access waiver,” Cobert says. “Georgians and their families would be much better served by building on the stable and growing health insurance marketplace that we already have, rather than pushing it aside to gamble on an untested idea.”

Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for Healthy Future, a consumer advocacy nonprofit, urged Kemp to use the pause as an opportunity to reconsider the waiver.

“There are more Georgians enrolled in coverage through the Affordable Care Act than ever before. Any plan that would meaningfully disrupt health insurance for 700,000 folks should be carefully considered,” Colbert said.

“Georgia leaders are not giving Georgians the courtesy of careful consideration when they refuse to answer questions about their plan to separate from healthcare.gov, and disregard evidence that it will mean some hard-working Georgians lose their coverage. Under these circumstances, it’s reasonable for the federal government to hit the brakes,” she added.

Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for Healthy Future, a consumer advocacy nonprofit, urged Kemp to use the pause as an opportunity to reconsider the waiver.

“There are more Georgians enrolled in coverage through the Affordable Care Act than ever before. Any plan that would meaningfully disrupt health insurance for 700,000 folks should be carefully considered,” Colbert said.

“Georgia leaders are not giving Georgians the courtesy of careful consideration when they refuse to answer questions about their plan to separate from healthcare.gov, and disregard evidence that it will mean some hard-working Georgians lose their coverage. Under these circumstances, it’s reasonable for the federal government to hit the brakes,” she added.

An opponent of the Kemp plan, Georgians for a Healthy Future director Laura Colbert, said the suspension was warranted.

“Any plan that would meaningfully disrupt health insurance for 700,000 folks should be carefully considered,” Colbert said in an emailed statement.

“Georgia leaders have refused to answer questions about their plan to separate from healthcare.gov, and disregarded evidence that their plan will mean some hard-working Georgians lose their coverage.”

Laura Colbert, executive director of advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future, praised the state action. “For our health care system to work as intended, patients, providers, and insurance companies each have to hold up their respective ends of the bargain,” Colbert said. “When Georgians paid their health insurance premiums each month, they did their part. Blue Cross Blue Shield failed to do the same when they were slow to address members’ complaints and made it difficult for members to access health care by sharing inaccurate information about which doctors were in-network.”