The time for experimenting with people’s health care has passed. Georgia now ranks fifth in the nation for residents without health care coverage, and five of our rural hospitals have closed their doors in the past two years. These closures are expected to worsen in coming years, leaving more of South Georgia without health care. Also, 650,000 Georgians would have had health insurance had Gov. Nathan Deal made the decision to accept Medicaid expansion funding.
The people eligible for Medicaid expansion are the working poor, who make too much to qualify for regular Medicaid health insurance and too little to qualify to purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Medicaid expansion would provide for an infusion of funds that would help keep rural hospitals open for all of their patients, while tens of thousands of patients at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital would get health insurance.
When the ACA was passed, Georgia was one of many Republican-controlled states that blocked the federally backed Medicaid expansion that was a companion funding mechanism. Republicans railed against the ACA (Obamacare) as an interference with states’ rights. But in the next breath, these same ideologues abdicated their responsibility and blamed the federal government for not fixing the problem.
The disastrous decision not to expand Medicaid in Georgia based on political ideology has cost lives and jobs. At the end of the day, it won’t be Obamacare (now upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court) or the Feds that will be hurt. These acts of political stubbornness only hurt constituents — those who rely on rural and urban hospitals for cancer treatment, emergencies and other basic care.
(Interestingly, while most Republican governors have refused to expand Medicaid, some Republican governors have done so or allowed modified expansions, such as in Arizona and Arkansas.)
As our state health care crisis deepens, Gov. Deal plans to “experiment” with funding for Georgia’s rural and safety-net hospitals by applying for a federal Section 1115 waiver that would allow a handful of urban and rural Georgians access to health care. The waiver process, which could take months, is not guaranteed, and the continued political maneuvering would leave hundreds of thousands of Georgians without access to health care.
Further, a waiver could set up Georgia for continued financial shortfalls. Under alternative models adopted in Arkansas and Florida, private insurance rates rose faster than Medicaid costs. This is important, because most alternative models require some form of premium payment. Over time, these plans show significant inflation and fewer people covered. Why would we financially hamstring the state with an inferior product just so Republicans can claim they did something that’s not Obamacare? And why would we let them?
Democrats will continue to push for full Medicaid expansion in Georgia. This will ensure our citizens have appropriate health care, and help to ensure our rural and safety-net hospitals remain open and that Georgians who work in these hospitals remain employed.
The health care crisis we now face is a self-inflicted wound, purely for ideological reasons. The wound needs immediate treatment: Medicaid expansion.
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