Georgia’s house speaker cracked open the door to Medicaid expansion in the state, but now that door appears to be closing for 2024.
A bill introduced Tuesday by a top lieutenant to Republican House Speaker Jon Burns proposes to create a Comprehensive Health Care Commission that could clear the way for more health coverage in the future, but not this year.
Supporters of Medicaid expansion had already concluded that the odds were growing long for 2024, with more than half the legislative session having elapsed without a proposal being introduced by Rep. Butch Parrish, the Swainsboro Republican that Burns appointed to lead the discussions.
GEORGIA REPUBLICANS CONSIDERING MEDICAID EXPANSION RISK BACKLASH FROM PRIMARY VOTERS
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision this month to sue the federal government to try to extend the life of his Georgia Pathways program was widely seen as a sign that he opposed an expansion of health care coverage. Georgia Pathways offers coverage to able-bodied adults earning up to the poverty line — $14,580 for an individual or $24,860 for a family of three. But people must document 80 monthly hours of work, study, rehabilitation or volunteering to be eligible.
Only 2,350 people enrolled in the program from July 1 to mid-December, far fewer than the 100,000 that the Kemp administration projected the program might cover. It would expire in 2025, but Kemp sued to extend it to 2028.
After North Carolina began offering Medicaid to uninsured adults on Dec. 1, there are 10 remaining states that don’t cover people with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty line. More than 430,000 uninsured Georgia adults could gain coverage if Medicaid is broadened, health research group KFF has projected.
“The governor’s getting entrenched,” said House Minority Leader James Beverly, a Macon Democrat. “In suing the federal government and in his continuing to say Pathways is the way, 500,000 Georgians are being left without health care for another year. And…
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