ATLANTA, GA — There are new concerns about how Georgia healthcare could be impacted by President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” budget bill.

A congressional budget office analysis estimates 624,000 Georgians could lose their healthcare coverage if the bill is passed by congress.

“It’s about increasing costs for private health insurance and making it harder to get through the enrollment process and renewal process for Medicaid.”

Laura Colbert with Georgians for a Healthy Future says the premium tax credit could also go away, increasing premiums for everyone.

The Senate must still vote on the bill.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s experiment with a work requirement for Medicaid offers a test of a similar mandate Republicans in Congress want to implement nationally, and advocates say the results so far should serve as a warning.

Just days shy of its two-year anniversary, the Georgia Medicaid program is providing health coverage to about 7,500 low-income residents, up from 4,300 in the first year, but far fewer than the estimated 240,000 people who could qualify. The state had predicted at least 25,000 enrollees in the first year and nearly 50,000 in the second year.

“The data on the Pathways program speaks for itself,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, an advocacy group that has called for a broader expansion of Medicaid without work requirements. “There are just so many hurdles at every step of the way that it’s just a really difficult program for people to enroll in and then to stay enrolled in too.”

Budget bill includes changes to Medicaid similar to Georgia’s ‘Pathways’ program

Georgia could soon become the poster child for administering Medicaid with work requirements — for better or worse.

As Congressional Republicans seek to pass a budget bill enacting President Donald Trump’s agenda, they’re looking to require able-bodied Medicaid recipients to work in order to receive their health care coverage. Georgia is presently the only state in the nation with work requirements for its Medicaid population…

Laura Colbert, the executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, said frequent checks are difficult and expensive. There is more churn within the system because people are often falling in and out of care.

MORE THAN 7 MILLION PEOPLE will become uninsured if Medicaid cuts in Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” become law, according to the Congressional Budget Office. And the single biggest reason for that would be new “work requirements” the legislation would impose on some Medicaid beneficiaries.

The Republicans say they are out to protect taxpayer resources, so that Medicaid isn’t subsidizing people who could be working but aren’t. They also say this is their way of “protecting Medicaid for the vulnerable”—that people who are engaged in productive activity will be able to stay on the program as long as they can prove it.

But one state is trying to do that now. It’s Georgia. And it hasn’t been going well.

DEANNA WILLIAMS, with Georgians for a Healthy Future who helps residents enroll in public health programs, told me she has seen this first-hand: “There are a lot of people who apply for the program who [worry] about meeting those hours because they have service jobs. If they are working at a restaurant, where their hours may fluctuate, or they are working in retail—during the holidays you may get more hours than normal, but during the regular season, you don’t get that many hours.”

As Congress continues to work to vote on a new budget, the Atlanta Community Food Bank said potential cuts could turn into a crisis with no answer.

The federal government is seeking public comment as it considers extending Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage program through 2030. Started by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2023, it offers Medicaid coverage to low-income adults but includes a work requirement. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge reports.

Since its launch in July 2023, less than 3% of those eligible for the state’s Pathways to Coverage — or 7,000 Georgians — have enrolled in health care coverage using a Medicaid waiver.

Whitney Griggs with Georgians for a Healthy Future said the administrative burden is preventing people from enrolling and is leaving more people without access to health care.

“Lots of folks who are eligible lose their coverage because they run into some sort of an administrative roadblock trying to submit their qualifying activity or prove their address or even just fill out the basic application,” she said.

Congress is considering similar changes as it looks to make cuts to Medicaid. The public comment period goes through June 1.

Peter Biello: The federal government is seeking public comment as it considers extending Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage program through 2030. Started by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2023, it offers Medicaid coverage to low-income adults but includes a work requirement. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge reports.

Ellen Eldridge: Since its launch in July 2023, less than 3% of those eligible, or 7,000 Georgians, have enrolled in health care coverage using a Medicaid waiver. Whitney Griggs is with Georgians for a Healthy Future. She says the administrative burden is preventing people from enrolling and is leaving more people without access to health care.

Whitney Griggs: Lots of folks who are eligible lose their coverage because they run into some sort of an administrative roadblock trying to submit their qualifying activity. Or, you know, move their address or even just, you know, fill out the basic applications.

Ellen Eldridge: Congress is considering similar changes as it looks to make cuts to Medicaid. The public comment period goes through June 1. For GPB News, I’m Ellen Eldridge

Congressional Republicans’ proposed cuts to health care, unveiled this week, lay the groundwork for thousands of Georgians on subsidized private insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act to lose their coverage and go uninsured.

Some of the cuts are made directly in the bill, such as revoking ACA insurance from about 21,000 Georgia DACA recipients, called “Dreamers”; or permanently shortening the open enrollment period.

Georgia mothers are facing a health care emergency — and Black women are disproportionately bearing the brunt of it…

Why is maternal mortality so high in Georgia?

There are many interconnected factors that contribute to Georgia’s crisis:

• Limited Medicaid coverage: Georgia has not adopted full Medicaid expansion. Instead, it launched a Pathways to Coverage program, intended to serve more people. According to Wilder, enrollment has fallen far short of its 100,000 goal after nearly two years, leaving critical federal dollars untapped.
• Medical deserts: Since 2010, nine rural hospitals have closed in Georgia, reports Georgians for a Healthy Future. This means many women have to drive hours for obstetric services.