Georgia Republicans work on health care overhaul

Some Georgia leaders have looked away from the turmoil in Washington this week to work on the Republican health care replacement plan.

GUIDE: Health care in Georgia

IN-DEPTH: Georgians who could lose Obamacare

Testimony from Georgia State University experts this week showed serious issues to tackle. Just a couple of examples:

• Small businesses are crucial for the economy but terrible as a source of health insurance. When you break down Georgia households by the size of company where the breadwinner works, the ones where the breadwinner works at a small firm are way more likely than anyone else to have no health insurance. More likely even than the households where the breadwinner is simply unemployed.

• The private group health insurance plans that Americans typically think of as providing the best health care in the world have now shrunk to the point that fewer than half of people have one. They're still shrinking.

• There may be little an employee can do to get one. Fewer than half of U.S. firms even offer employees insurance, and Georgia's average is even lower: 40 percent.

Georgia’s U.S. senators, David Perdue and Johnny Isakson, spoke to the AJC last week about their initial desires for a health insurance overhaul.