“These disenrolled individuals are likely children and parents in very low-income households, those living in unstable housing, and children who move between parents, grandparents, and other family members for care,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, which is a nonprofit patient advocacy group.

“It is very likely that the majority of these kids are still eligible for Medicaid coverage but may not find out until they visit the doctor, try to fill a prescription, or have an emergency,” Colbert said.

There was also a notable decline last month in the rate of automatic renewals, which are done with data the state already has access to – like payroll or unemployment data – and does not require the Medicaid enrollee to do anything. The rate went from nearly 49% in May to about 23% last month.

“This data includes some very troubling signs for Georgia families,” Colbert said of the monthly data released Wednesday. “The combination of low automatic renewals and very high disenrollments means that eligible kids and families are losing their Medicaid coverage unnecessarily.”

“There will be far fewer uninsured folks as a result of this Medicaid renewal process in the states with Medicaid expansion,” said Laura Colbert, Executive Director of Georgians for a Healthy Future. “Georgia is not one of those, so we will see very large coverage losses.”

The state market will be different than what Kemp originally planned. He wanted to put insurance deals in the hands of private brokers who could sell policies with the insurance package required by the Affordable Care Act as well as policies with lower benefits. Those measures might have been cheaper, but Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, said they would have been worse for consumers.

“That really would have taken Georgia back to the bad old days where insurers really gave consumers a head start and it was incredibly difficult to compare plans,” Colbert said, calling Kemp’s original plan a “non-marketplace.”

“What we know is that in Georgia, more than 400,000 Georgians would be covered if the state expanded Medicaid,” said Laura Colbert, director at Georgians for a Healthy Future.

“The reason that there’s such a gap between those who will gain coverage and those who are potentially eligible is because this program really overloads people with paperwork,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Health Future.

“It is a paperwork requirement rather than a work and community engagement requirement,” she said.

“Any program that doesn’t cover all 400,000 to 450,000 [uninsured] Georgians falls short of what Georgia needs,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future.

“The reason that there’s such a gap between those who will gain coverage and those who are potentially eligible is because this program really overloads people with paperwork,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Health Future.

“It is a paperwork requirement rather than a work and community engagement requirement,” she said.

“A lot of that will depend on how easy it is for folks to submit their proof of qualifying activities or proof of exemption,” Whitney Griggs, senior policy manager for the group Georgians for a Healthy Future, said in an emailed statement.

An advocate for Medicaid coverage of the poor, Laura Colbert, said she was not too concerned about DCH being behind in completing case files. As long as a case review hasn’t been completed, she reasoned, that person will just keep getting coverage, so it’s not an emergency.

What Colbert is concerned about is the unanswered questions in the numbers: What is going on with the thousands of cases that haven’t been reviewed and will large numbers of them also be disenrolled for not responding?

“I think that’s pretty important,” Colbert said.