“It is an opportunity for the state of Georgia to return tax money to the taxpayers of Georgia,” -Rep. Josh Bonner, a Fayetteville Republican, commenting on Governor Kemp’s plan to refund $1.6 billion in taxes
Governor, returning tax refunds is a great PR political stunt in an election year when you are facing strong primary and general election opposition. But what about crucial items that have not been funded, like Medicaid expansion? Are you once again going to ignore the basic needs of your fellow Georgians for political gain?
“Cover Georgia” is a broad coalition of 70 healthcare and related groups throughout the state, all of which have the same goal- providing healthcare coverage to more Georgians (https://coverga.org).
A few days ago, the Cover Georgia coalition had a “Medicaid expansion advocacy day” in which citizens were encouraged to call their local legislators to ask that they support Medicaid expansion in our state. Anyone who cares about the hundreds of thousands of Georgians in need of healthcare should hope they succeed.
Unfortunately, Georgia’s Medicaid expansion has become politicized in today’s tribalistic society. But it should not be. Three fourths of Americans have a favorable view of Medicaid, including two thirds of Republicans (https://files.kff.org/attachment/fact-sheet-medicaid-state-GA).
That’s why the vast majority of states, red and blue, have already expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act. There are only a dozen states which have not … and all but 4 are in the very red South. And all 12 have legislatures dominated by the GOP.
The Affordable Care Act, including Medicaid expansion, has been a national success. It lowered the national rate of uninsured from 17% in 2013 to 10% (2017), but Georgia was much higher, 15%. This is primarily due to its lack of Medicaid expansion, stopped by political considerations.
There are over 10 million Georgians, with 2 million covered by Medicaid (https://www.healthinsurance.org/medicaid/georgia/ ). But an additional 678,000 would be covered if Georgia would just expand Medicaid without applying for financially non-sensical “waivers” which cut the number of people eligible and make Georgia unable to get the 90% Federal matching funds that other states have obtained. The highly politicized so-called “Georgia Pathways” waiver has been correctly rejected by the Feds. In a ridiculous over-reaction, Georgia has taken its poorly crafted waiver plan to court in a last-ditch effort to avoid real expansion which would cover more Georgians at a lower relative cost. If this sounds like a poorly written politically motivated soap opera which ignores human suffering, it clearly is. And we should contact our Governor, state Senators and Representatives to express our displeasure.
All Americans, including all Georgians, should receive basic healthcare as a right, not some sort of privilege. In fact, we are the only developed nation that does not provide universal coverage for all its citizens. Medicaid expansion in Georgia will not solve the health insurance problem here, but it will certainly help alleviate it for hundreds of thousands of our needy fellow citizens.
Governor Kemp is up for reelection, so he has introduced a proposal into the General Assembly to return $1.6 billion back to Georgians. So, we clearly have the money to expand Medicaid, especially with 90% of the expansion funded by the Federal government. Isn’t it about time for our legislature and Governor to finally stop playing political games and help low- income Georgians in need of healthcare?
Jack Bernard is the former Director of Health Planning for Georgia. He has served 4 terms on two Georgia Boards of Health.
