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A plan by state Senate Democrats and some Republicans to fully expand Medicaid coverage in Georgia was shot down Thursday by the narrowest margin – a tie vote in a Senate committee.
Sen. David Lucas, D-Macon, working with Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, brought a proposal to expand Georgia’s Medicaid program through a waiver the state would seek from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Georgia’s Republican governors and legislative leaders have refused to consider fully expanding Medicaid coverage for more than a decade since a then-Democratic Congress passed the Affordable Care Act, citing the cost.
But if the feds approved the waiver, Georgia would receive a $1.2 billion “signing bonus” from the federal government to implement the program during the first two years, according to a state audit. The program would cover an estimated 500,000 to 1 million Georgians.
“We can’t kick the can down the road anymore,” Lucas told members of the Senate Regulated Industries Committee Thursday. “$1.2 billion is waiting in (Washington), D.C., for Georgia to expand (Medicaid). But how long is it going to be there?”
“It would be a massive reduction in how many uninsured Georgians we have,” added Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, a nonprofit that has long supported Medicaid expansion.
But several Republicans on the committee said fully expanding Medicaid now would undercut two waiver programs the Kemp administration has put in place or is working to implement.
After a lengthy court struggle with the Biden administration, Gov. Brian Kemp’s Georgia Pathways to Coverage program took effect last summer. The Kemp administration also has a second waiver program called Georgia Access, a…
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