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In The News
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
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.”
CHICAGO — Consumer representatives praised state insurance regulators for urging Congress to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, and encouraged the regulators to keep up the pressure during a session at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners summer conference on Monday (Aug. 12).
Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future and one of NAIC’s 22 funded Consumer Liaison representatives, and Claire Heyison, senior policy analyst at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and one of NAIC’s unfunded consumer representatives, also laid out the consequences of letting the credits end, many of which were also included in National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC) July 19 letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Finance and Ways & Means committees.
First enacted under the American Rescue Plan in 2021, the enhanced credits made $0 premium plans available to people earning up to 150% of poverty and lowered the premium contribution for those with higher incomes, including by reducing the maximum rate to no more than 8.5% of monthly income.
Just over one year after it came into effect, Georgia’s alternative to Medicaid expansion is not living up to its promise, according to an Atlanta-based policy research organization.
“Unfair paperwork requirements and other bureaucratic hurdles are keeping hard-working Georgians from getting covered,” said Laura Colbert, Executive Director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, which partnered with GBPI in criticizing the Pathways program.
Health care researchers and advocates want Georgia to implement new policies across its health insurance system as the state concludes its yearlong process of redetermining eligibility for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Ten states—six of them in the South—have not adopted Medicaid expansion as provided under the Affordable Care Act. In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp has implemented a conservative alternative that offers government health insurance to people earning up to the federal poverty level—$15,060 for an individual adult—if they can document that they’re working, in school, or performing other qualifying activities. Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, spoke with Spotlight recently about Kemp’s plan and GHF’s support for more traditional Medicaid expansion. The transcript of the conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
CDC study cites some causes of growing disparity of preventable early deaths between rural and urban residents.
People in rural Georgia and nationwide are more likely to die early than those in urban areas, and the long-term trend got worse during the pandemic, according to a multi-year study released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rural Georgians are less likely to have job-based health insurance, according to the nonprofit Georgians for a Healthy Future. And in Georgia, uninsured poor adults are not automatically covered by Medicaid, as the state is one of 10 mostly in the South that remain opposed to full Medicaid expansion. That lack of coverage “absolutely (is) one of the predictors and one of the bigger problems,” Garcia said.
The idea of expanding Medicaid is gaining momentum in the last holdout states, with eyes on Mississippi as the next potential state to take up the policy.
As of 2024, only 10 states have not expanded their Medicaid programs. North Carolina and South Dakota are the two newest states to provide Medicaid coverage to people earning no more than 138 percent of the federal poverty level.
The renewed interest comes at a time when states can now get a bump in federal dollars for two years if they adopt Medicaid expansion. The incentive was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
Laura Colbert, the executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, said awareness of the program is low and it’s complicated to get enrolled.
“We know about two-thirds of Georgians in this income bracket are in a working household so would presumably qualify, and yet we haven’t seen them enroll in it,” Colbert said. “We think a lot of that is because the enrollment process is difficult and it’s not working for the folks it’s supposedly meant for.”
Over 19 million people are estimated to have been taken off of Medicaid after broader eligibility granted during the coronavirus pandemic expired—but many who were disenrolled may still be eligible for the health program.
Analysis of government data by health policy research organization KFF found that, as of March 26, around 20 percent of the total number of individuals enrolled on either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) had seen their coverage removed, while 36 percent still had renewals pending….
Deanna Williams, an enrollment assister at non-profit Georgians for a Healthy Future, told local news outlet WABE on Monday that many of the people she works with were finding out they had lost coverage during visits to the doctor or pharmacy.
“That means they may be without medication for a week or two, or sometimes a month, depending on how long this process is,” she said. Georgia has reportedly taken steps to notify people at risk of losing coverage, and those who are cut off have the ability to appeal.
Over 500,000 individuals in Georgia have lost their Medicaid coverage as the state aggressively pursues Medicaid redetermination, leaving many citizens without crucial healthcare. This unwavering bureaucratic process has unfolded following an end to federal COVID-19 public health emergency regulations, which previously prevented the state from dropping beneficiaries. According to a report by WABE, Georgia is working through the monumental task of reassessing nearly 2.8 million adults and children enrolled in the program, demanding that all reapply to retain their health coverage.
The grind of paperwork and administrative requirements has proven a stumbling block for many. Deanna Williams, an enrollment assister with Georgians for a Healthy Future, expressed the surprise and hardship that her clients face when discovering their Medicaid coverage is no longer active. “It’s typically they’re finding out when they’re either going to a pharmacy or going to a doctor’s office and they’re having that visit,” Williams told WABE. The lapse in coverage has led to people being without medication for potentially weeks at a time.