’This is a huge missed opportunity,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future. “We’re missing the most cost-effective way to solve this problem.”

The project will address this gap by building the capacity of Georgia’s community health workers to engage in effective community organizing and civic advocacy through training, technical assistance, and peer learning. The project will sustain this engagement by focusing on fostering and nurturing relationships within a network of CHWs and the project team that will outlast the duration of this project. CVH – Georgia is led by Berneta Haynes and Liz Coyle of Georgia Watch along with Natalie Hernandez of Morehouse School of Medicine, Laura Colbert of Georgians for a Healthy Future, and Hayes-Brown of Georgia ACT.

“I would dispute the characterization that this is a step forward,” said Georgians for a Healthy Future executive director Laura Colbert. That organization is a lobbying group pursuing improved health care access. “I think that Georgia can do much better and can do it more cost effectively.”

“Separating Georgia from healthcare.gov puts people with pre-existing conditions, rural Georgians, and people of color at unnecessary risk of enrolling in substandard health insurance or becoming uninsured altogether,” said Laura Colbert of the consumer advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.

In a statement, Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, noted that the final public comment period for the Georgia Access proposal closed with 1,800 comments. This was a record number of comments for this type of proposal.

“The overwhelming majority of those comments were in opposition and came not only from Georgians but from a wide array of respected organizations, like the American Medical Association and the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the United Way,” stated Colbert. “Despite this, Georgia has just earned one of the fastest approvals for the proposal.”

The waivers could also result in a net increase of uninsured Georgians during the first year, said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future.

“When both of these proposals are rolled out, it is likely that more Georgians will lose health coverage than gain it in the first year,” she said. “When health insurance is more valuable than ever for the access to care and financial protections that it provides to families, state leaders would leave more Georgians uninsured.”

“I would dispute the characterization that this is a step forward,” said Laura Colbert, executive director at Georgians for a Healthy Future, a lobbying group that seeks better health care access. “I think that Georgia can do much better, and can do it more cost effectively.”

Critics worry about the state abandoning the current website. “Separating Georgia from healthcare.gov puts people with pre-existing conditions, rural Georgians, and people of color at unnecessary risk of enrolling in substandard health insurance or becoming uninsured altogether,” said Laura Colbert of the consumer advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.

“We’re going to see a lot of people churning in and out of the program, so people may get coverage and then immediately lose that, so that is not good for continuum of care,” said Colbert with Georgians for a Healthy Future.