Dec 16, 2025 Monday was the deadline to buy health insurance that starts in January on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. But unlike many other states, it’s not too late for Georgia residents, who have until Jan. 15 to sign up for coverage that begins Feb. 1. That’s because Georgia runs its own ACA marketplace exchange, GeorgiaAccess.gov. About 1.3 million people are enrolled in Georgia Access…

Analysts expect Georgia to see one of the nation’s biggest rises in uninsured people next year, as a result of expiring pandemic-era subsidies for ACA plans.

The final numbers for 2026 enrollment may not be clear for a couple of months. Huge numbers of people enroll at the last minute through auto-renewal. But after that, some people who became enrolled won’t pay the premiums and will drop off….

Georgians for a Healthy Future was formerly a navigator organization and now has a certified assistant. It has limited hours in Byron, Georgia at 470-654-5509.

Dec 10, 2025

Georgians with Affordable Care Act health insurance are evaluating their options as open enrollment winds down for plans beginning Jan. 1, 2026.

A majority of the roughly 1.5 million Georgians with coverage in the state would be affected if enhanced premium tax credits that have made Marketplace plans more affordable since 2021 expire at the end of the year…

“Everyone has been calling because around Nov. 1, they have received their letters letting them know what their premium costs will be going up to,” says Deanna Williams, Enrollment Assister with the nonprofit Georgians for a Healthy Future, part of the state’s Certified Application Counselor (CAC) program.

Williams says she’s heard from dozens of people from around the state who are worried about being able to afford health care.

“If your premium is more than doubling and your income hasn’t increased, that’s something they’re trying to evaluate in their household. And then others are trying to say, well, the cost of this monthly premium is more than what I pay for rent and my bills included,” Williams says.

 

Dec 8, 2025

An increasing number of factors are making it harder and more expensive for low-income Georgians to access and afford health care.

Cuts made by the Trump administration, individuals losing insurance, and a national trend of hospital closures are placing mounting pressure on the remaining health care infrastructure.

In WABE’s series, “Medical Wealth Gap: Filling the cracks in Atlanta’s safety net,” we look at the impending changes to health care and what they will mean for people in Georgia…

More uninsured Georgians and overwhelmed ERs

Deanna Williams, Georgians for a Healthy Future Enrollment Assister, is part of the state’s Certified Application Counselor (CAC) program. She said some of the people she works with are facing increases well beyond their budgets, forcing them to look elsewhere for health care.

In many cases, that means waiting until conditions are severe enough to warrant a visit to the emergency room or turning to free and low-cost clinics that cannot offer more advanced, specialized care.

“They’re going to go to the emergency rooms for care because typically, the emergency room can’t turn you away. And it’s going to also overwork the sliding scale clinics or even volunteer clinics,” Williams said. “They’re going to get an increase in the influx of people coming to receive services there because they no longer have health insurance.

The situation is even worse in rural parts of the state, where closures have been on the rise, and hospitals that remain open are having to cut back on services and departments to stay open.

Williams recommends that insurance marketplace customers carefully evaluate available plans to find the option that best suits their needs.

“Compare plans beyond their monthly premium to make sure that the plan shows them their total cost picture, co-pays, deductibles, and co-insurance, said Williams. “A lot of people will just pick the plan based on the monthly premium and then later on find out that the plan doesn’t necessarily cover everything that they need for their health, their specialists are not covering all of their providers.”

Nov 24, 2025

Republicans across the country are in a bind of President Donald Trump’s making: After voting to end the 43-day federal shutdown, they have yet to articulate a plan to tackle the upcoming spike in health care premiums.

That conundrum is coming into sharp relief in Georgia, a state with an especially high reliance on the Affordable Care Act, where Republicans have one of their best opportunities to pick up a Senate seat as they fight to maintain their grip on Congress…

Over 1.5 million Georgians rely on the state-based exchange known as Georgia Access for insurance, making the Peach State host to the fourth-highest marketplace enrollment in the country, according to one analysis. Over 90 percent of those enrollees use the federal subsidies to afford their insurance.

“You can really see the impact of the enhanced premium tax credits on the marketplace and having that increased affordability really pushed our marketplace enrollment quite high,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of the advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.

But when the subsidies expire at the end of the year, 340,000 of those enrolled are projected to lose their insurance as premium prices skyrocket, per the Georgia Health Initiative projection.

That will likely foment before the end of the year, Colbert posited, describing Dec. 15 as a “drop dead” date by which insurance companies will start delivering premium notices to auto-enrolled customers about their 2026 coverage.

“Rural Georgians are going to feel this in a bigger way than those of us who live in the metro Atlanta area,” she added, saying “folks that live in rural areas tend to be older and so therefore premiums are already a lot higher in those regions.”

Nov 12, 2025

Nov 3, 2025

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Open enrollment for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace is now underway for more than a million Georgians, but this year comes with added uncertainty.

The tax credits that help make coverage affordable may not be extended, leaving many residents unsure about their health care costs….

According to Georgians for a Healthy Future, nearly 1.5 million Georgians rely on ACA tax credits. 93% of those enrolled in the marketplace depend on the subsidies to keep coverage affordable.

Oct 31, 2025

LOUISVILLE — For more than a year, Jessica Lewis has made the 50-minute drive north from her home in Louisville to her doctor’s office in the Augusta suburb of Grovetown.

At times, the 35-year-old tax preparer made weekly trips so she could see the obstetrician who was providing her care while pregnant. She gave birth a year ago and still goes to Grovetown for her son’s pediatrician visits. Lewis said the nearly two-hour round trip was the best way for her to get consistent care.

The prenatal care options in her hometown are more limited. She could have seen a certified nurse midwife through Jefferson Hospital, but Lewis said she was more comfortable traveling to Grovetown….

Georgia is consistently ranked among states with the worst maternal mortality rate with 49.2 deaths per 100,000 live births annually, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Over the years the crisis has been exacerbated by hospital closings. Since 2010, nine rural hospitals have closed in Georgia, according to nonprofit advocacy organization Georgians for a Healthy Future. And earlier this year, St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in Lavonia announced it would cut its labor and delivery unit to save money.

Those closures result in some patients making long drives for checkups or to deliver their babies.

 

Oct 31, 2025

On Saturday, Georgia Access, the state’s program for Affordable Care Act health insurance plans, opens the door to enroll in 2026 policies. Open enrollment for 2026 plans will last until Jan. 15 in Georgia.

The time to shop is now. After open enrollment closes, no one can sign up for a 2026 plan unless they have a legally approved reason, like moving to a new state or getting divorced.

The higher price tags for ACA premiums and deductibles next year have made national news. Some pandemic-era extra federal subsidies are scheduled to expire, and Congress is currently shut down in a fight over whether to extend them. For the moment, premium prices are expected to more than double nationwide, on average.

…

Unless Congress changes things, next year the people who get federal discounts on their costs are those with an income between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level, or $21,150 a year to $84,600 a year for a household of two.

The subsidy gets smaller the higher the income. Outside of that income window, the policyholder pays full market price.

WHEN

Georgia Access open enrollment ends Dec. 15 for coverage that starts Jan. 1, 2026; it ends Jan. 15 for coverage that starts Feb. 1. Many other states will not have that much time.

HOW MUCH

Prices will vary widely depending on a person’s age and income, and how much coverage they purchase (plans are titled bronze, silver, or gold). Prices are going to be much higher this year because “enhanced” subsidies are expiring.

WHERE

• Ground zero for plan shopping is the official ACA website in Georgia: GeorgiaAccess.gov. If people need help using the website they can reach a human by going through the prompts at 888-687-1503.
• Warning: the site is .gov, not .org or .com. Someone else bought those internet addresses and set up sites that appear to be the state’s insurance portal but are not.
• The GeorgiaAccess.gov website also offers different types of assistance. Under “Find Local Assistance,” a shopper can put in their ZIP code to find resources. Clicking for an “agent” searches for helpers incentivized by commissions. Clicking for a “Georgia Certified Assister” should yield organizations that are neutral.
• “Navigators” are fading out. Navigators used to be the most well-known type of neutral enrollment assistant. Georgia Access lists one Navigator grantee organization this year, PowerATL, which received $5,000.
• Georgians for a Healthy Future was formerly a navigator organization and now has a certified assistant. She has limited hours in Byron, Georgia at 470-654-5509.
• Client First Solutions in Americus is founded by health advocate Kirk Lyman-Barner. They are insurance agents who get private commissions. They will take clients from anywhere in Georgia, at 229-596-1002.
• GeorgiaAccess.gov also lists web brokers, which are alternative sign-up websites. Some agents use HealthSherpa.com because they say it’s easier to use.

Oct 30, 2025

ATLANTA (AP) — There may be no rank-and-file Democratic senator with more at stake from the federal government shutdown than Georgia’s Jon Ossoff.

He is the party’s only senator who is seeking reelection next year in a state that Republican Donald Trump won in 2024, and any chance that Democrats may have in regaining Senate control depends on Ossoff holding the seat. As the second-longest shutdown in history drags on and Democrats insist on extending expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies beyond year’s end, more people in Georgia than most other states are likely to lose health insurance if the tax credits go away.

About 1.5 million Georgians are insured this year through Democratic President Barack Obama’s health overhaul that was enacted in 2010. Because Georgia is one of 10 states that has not fully expanded Medicaid, as was envisioned under “Obamacare,” it has a larger population covered by the law’s marketplace policies than in Medicaid-expansion states.

“Particularly because we have such a high number of low-income folks in our marketplace, and they’re very price sensitive, we have a much higher risk of seeing those people drop out of the insurance pool,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future.

The group, which promotes expanded health coverage, projects that 340,000 Georgians could drop coverage because of higher prices.

Oct 23, 2025

Dr. Joy Baker, an obstetrician and gynecologist within the Wellstar Health System, has seen patients who have driven from two and a half hours away for care. Some within the health care industry are calling this a crisis and fear things are about to get worse.

Once the One Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law on July 4, 2025, by President Donald Trump, it triggered coverage cuts to Medicaid. For rural hospitals that treat large numbers of Medicaid recipients, that means less revenue. According to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, Georgia currently has 71 rural hospitals, and the loss of funds is putting as many as 20 rural hospitals at risk of closing and 28 could experience a loss of services.

In September, St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital in rural northeast Georgia was forced to close its labor and delivery unit, and it’s an hour drive to the next maternity care facility in Athens. In southeast Georgia, Evans Memorial Hospital has already closed its OB/GYN unit, and the intensive care unit might be next. With nine rural hospitals closing since 2010, local health advocates say Georgia ranks third in the nation for hospital closures.

On Thursday’s edition of “Closer Look,” Baker joins program host Rose Scott along with Whitney Griggs, the director of health policy at Georgians for a Healthy Future, to discuss the impact this will have on rural communities.