Georgia Sues Biden as Some Residents Face Losing Health Care

Georgia sued the Biden administration on Friday to extend the hours that low-income residents can receive health care.

Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is suing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to recover “stolen implementation time” from Georgia's Coverage Pathway 1115. filed a lawsuit. Demonstration exemption.

Specifically, Georgia officials are considering extending the program's start date by three years. This expiration date is currently set at the end of September 2025.

Georgia Pathways, which began in July 2023, expands Medicaid coverage to tens of thousands of low-income Georgians who were previously ineligible, but the state has not yet been approved by CMS for a federal-state waiver. However, it says it canceled “core elements” of the program and delayed its implementation. October 2020.

newsweek Biden was contacted for comment via email.

“After the Biden administration's long-running attempt to thwart Georgia's innovative plan to give thousands of Georgians access to quality health care has failed, they are back on track. ,” Kemp said in a statement. newsweek. “Back then, we defeated them in court, and now we are forcing the federal government to play politics by refusing to give us back the time they stole to delay the rollout and implementation of the pathway. We are once again asking them to abide by the terms they have agreed to instead of doing so.”

Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) Secretary Russell Carlson said DCH is working to inform eligible Georgians and enroll them in the appropriate plans.

“I commend Governor Kemp for his efforts in giving our team the opportunity to continue implementing this innovative program,” Carlson said in a statement.

Georgia's Patients First Act, first passed in 2019, called for allowing DCH to provide Medicaid coverage to people who were previously ineligible for benefits.

While traditional Medicaid was available to residents with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, the Georgia Pathways program expanded this to up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level.

This new coverage is modeled after the existing Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which CMS gave full approval in 2020.

But weeks after Biden's inauguration, CMS sent Georgia a letter declaring it was “reconsidering” its previous Georgia Pathways authorization, the state said in a press release.

On December 23, 2021, CMS revoked Georgia Pathways' approval due to substandard qualification time and premium requirements. Specifically, it examines the part of the Pathways program regarding work requirements, requiring financially eligible Georgians to spend 80 hours each month in work, study, rehabilitation, or volunteer work to qualify. said.

In response, the state of Georgia filed a lawsuit seeking to have the Georgia Pathway go into effect under the terms originally agreed to. In August of that summer, a federal court ruled in Georgia's favor, allowing Pathways to begin preparations to launch.

At the time, Kemp said the Biden administration was hindering the state's ability to provide health care to more than 50,000 Georgia families.

“They are attempting an illegal regulatory bait-and-switch, and it is clear that their decisions are not driven by policy, but rather politics, imposing top-down policies on the American people,” the governor said in 2022. I'm trying to do that,” he said.

Elected officials say the Biden administration's obstruction was ultimately partisan and ignored the actual policy impact.

At the time, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said, “The Biden administration's erroneous actions were not based on law or sound public policy, but rather on vicious partisan politics.” “We look forward to fighting for Georgia’s right to provide common sense health care solutions to its citizens.”

As of December 15, 2023, there are 2,344 active beneficiaries enrolled in the Pathways program.

“There is an ongoing back-and-forth battle between the Biden administration and the state of Georgia, primarily over the 'activity' requirement of the Georgia Pathway program,” said InsuranceQuotes.com analyst Michael Giusti. Newsweek.

If Georgia succeeds in keeping work requirements in Medicaid coverage, Giusti said other Southern states may try to emulate the policy.

“The shameful thing about all of this is that while the Biden administration and Georgia go back and forth, thousands of Georgians are without health care,” he added.