The 2026 Georgia Legislative Session Is Here

On Monday, January 13th, the Georgia General Assembly convened for the second year of the state’s two-year legislative cycle. This session gives lawmakers another opportunity to advance bills introduced last year that didn’t cross the finish line, as well as introduce new legislation addressing issues affecting Georgians’ health and well-being.

As lawmakers returned to the Capitol, they faced a fundamentally altered health care landscape following the passage of H.R. 1 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) by Congress and President Trump in July 2025. Steeply higher health insurance premiums strain family budgets and push more Georgians toward becoming uninsured. Georgia Access has already lost more than 190,000 enrollees in the first phase of 2026 enrollment.

According to new projections from the Georgia Health Initiative, the combined effects of H.R. 1’s changes to both marketplace operations and Medicaid funding, and the subsequent loss of premium subsidies could leave nearly 500,000 Georgians uninsured by 2034, drive $10.5 billion in uncompensated care costs, and result in $51.5 billion in lost health care provider revenue over the next decade.

At the same time, new federal restrictions on state provider taxes and state-directed payments are constraining the financing tools Georgia has historically relied on to fund its share of Medicaid costs.

So far, lawmakers have made few public comments about how they plan to grapple with these challenges in the 2026 legislative session.