Georgia, and the nation, continue to explore strategies to increase access to affordable healthcare for uninsured, or under-insured, people. The debate is tied closely to the fact that healthcare is a significant portion of both government and private-sector spending.
As the nation awaits the next steps that might affect the Affordable Care Act, the Georgia General Assembly last month passed legislation authorizing the state to explore a Medicaid waiver that would be intended to expand access to health care and ways to pay for it.
Improving healthcare access is an important issue for Georgia, its people, employers and healthcare providers, many of which have struggled to balance their books against the cost of uncompensated care for the state’s poor.
Today, we present a pair of viewpoints that address both Georgia’s healthcare situation and the national environment which also affects us here.
A former Georgia hospital executive and former Republican county commissioner urges a bipartisan approach to broadly expand Medicaid using a waiver. And the founder of a conservative advocacy group for seniors urges passage of a law he says would let doctors donate care more efficiently as a way to help lower healthcare costs.
The Editorial Board.