The new commission is expected to soon begin studying the health insurance needs of low-income and uninsured Georgians and will launch a thorough investigation into whether the state should reconsider its long-standing resistance to fully expanding Medicaid.
The committee was formed earlier this year by senior Republican officials. A new openness It seeks to expand health insurance coverage through alternatives to traditional Medicaid expansion.
But proposals to expand health insurance using a model like Arkansas’, where people buy private insurance on the marketplace instead of enrolling more people in state-run Medicaid programs, Narrowly defeated After appearing later in the session.
The newly created committee was seen as a way to continue that conversation while allowing more time for Gov. Brian Kemp’s limited expansion program, Georgia Pathways to Coverage.
The nine-member commission is tasked with meeting for the first time later this month and submitting a report to the governor and state lawmakers in December ahead of the 2025 legislative session. The commission is scheduled to disband at the end of 2026.
Federal government proposes temporary workaround
There is also a new proposal in the works that would create a temporary federal workaround for non-expansion states like Georgia.
Similar Concepts Floated It was proposed several years ago during negotiations on the Anti-Inflation Act, but that earlier proposal threatened to cut federal funding to states that opposed it.
Georgia has one of the highest uninsured rates in the country and is one of 10 states that has not fully implemented Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, R-S.C., announced Thursday he would introduce a “Bridge to Medicaid” bill to garner support ahead of expected moves next year to extend the Trump administration’s tax cuts. Sen. Jon Ossoff is also one of the sponsors of the bill.
The proposal would use tax credits to create new health care options for hundreds of thousands of Georgians who fall into the so-called “coverage gap” that exists in states that didn’t fully expand Medicaid.
The program is expected to begin in 2026 and last for three years.
“Those tax cuts have mostly gone to the wealthiest people,” Warnock said in an interview. “While we’re talking about tax cuts for people who don’t need them, I think we should also be talking about how to provide tax breaks for traveling nurses, truck drivers, people who paint houses to help them afford health care.”
“It’s these ordinary people that make America’s economy run, and doing nothing for the millions of Americans who are not covered by Medicaid will only lead to a sicker workforce,” he said.
If passed, the new tax credit would be similar to existing subsidies but would be more generous because it would be broader to include more people and would apply to copayments and deductibles.
Leah Chang, health justice director at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said the program is similar to an expansion model being eyed by Georgia Republican lawmakers.
“We have an opportunity to test this idea, see what works and what doesn’t work, and then at the end of the three years, we’ll move to a plan that will close the coverage gap that works best for the state of Georgia,” Chang said. “So this three-year period gives us an opportunity to test the idea of using this kind of premium subsidy model to close the coverage gap.”
GBPI is one of several groups supporting Warnock’s federal plan, along with the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network, which has been pushing for the expansion of full drug-based treatment at the state level.
“Closing the coverage gap will help more than 400,000 uninsured Georgians receive life-saving testing and primary care, helping to detect cancer earlier and increasing survival rates,” Fabienne-Antoine Nasser, the group’s Georgia government relations director, said in a statement Friday.
Still, Warnock said his proposal is intended to serve as a temporary solution.
“This is only a three-year program, so at the end of those three years, state leaders have to decide whether people should continue to be able to get health insurance and whether there should be an expansion of how we provide health insurance to people,” Warnock said.
“There is still work to be done.”
Under Kemp, the state partially expanded coverage to some low-income Georgians who completed 80 hours of work, school or other qualifying activities each month.
According to GBPI, approximately 4,300 people had registered as of June. Tracking Enrollment is done through public records requests. When the program launched a year ago, state officials said they expected as many as 100,000 people to enroll and that as many as 345,000 people could be eligible.
The governor defended the limited expansion plan and slammed traditional Medicaid as an “inefficient bureaucracy” in speech Thursday at the Georgia Hospital Association’s annual meeting, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.
Kemp blames the Biden administration for the delayed launch of Pathways, which was delayed after the federal government challenged the program’s work requirements, but a federal judge sided with the states.
The Kemp Administration Sued the Federal Government The state sued again in February to make up for lost time, but that case is still pending. As of now, the state’s program is set to expire in September 2025.
The program was launched last summer in all states Eligibility Assessment The campaign, which targets all 2.7 million Medicaid recipients, was part of an end to pandemic-era federal policies, known as “defunding.”
Gov. Kemp told state hospital leaders on Thursday that launching the program amid such a large undertaking has strained state resources and “didn’t get Pathways off the ground as well as it should have.”
He argued that a blanket Medicaid expansion “is not the best path forward” and promised to continue rolling out “a distinctively Georgia approach to health care that ensures people who need it have access to it while also seeking greater opportunity.”
“Is there still work to be done? Of course there is,” Kemp said, “but I remain committed to building on the progress we’ve made and countering any efforts that threaten to roll us back.”
It will be interesting to see what future initiatives will entail.
Kemp appointed GHA President and CEO Kaylee Noggle as chair of the committee. Noggle oversaw the launch of Pathways while serving as director of the state Department of Community Health.
“We are excited to continue working with (the Governor) to improve health care in Georgia. We understand the approach he is taking, but are encouraged by his comments, in which he recognizes there is still work to be done,” Noggle said in a statement Friday in response to Kemp’s remarks at the GHA meeting.
