The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lawmakers OK measure to close Medicaid funding gap
Fee to generate $900M for public health care program, gov. says.
Legislation needed to renew a fee on Georgia hospitals to help close a Medicaid funding gap of more than $900 million is on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal’s desk.
The state House on Friday voted 152-14 to give final approval to Senate Bill 70, which authorizes the Department of Community Health board to levy the fee an additional three years. The board is expected to do so quickly after Deal signs the bill into law. His office announced that would happen Tuesday.
“Because of the courage of the General Assembly, Georgia now has $900 million available to us for the Medicaid program,” Deal said in a statement. “Further, because of their leadership and quick action on this matter, we will not have to take away resources from other portions of the budget.”
Deal last month exhorted lawmakers to keep the fee, which was instituted in 2010 and subsequently renewed in 2013 despite some lawmakers’ complaints about it being a “bed tax.”
The fee directly raises more than $300 million a year. But the state uses that money to qualify for $600 million in matching federal funds, giving the legislation a $900 million annual impact on the state’s budget for Medicaid, the state and federal health care program for the poor and disabled.
State Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Dacula, acknowledging complaints from some that the provider fee could become obsolete if Congress abolishes the Affordable Care Act, said safeguards are built in.
The DCH board “currently has the authority to reduce or do away with collection of the payment under existing law,” Efstration said.
But state Rep. Scot Turner, R-Holly Springs, said that when the fee was first created in 2010 it was intended to be temporary. He supported a version of the bill that would have extended it for just one year.
“It was promised we would eventually end it,” Turner said. “I want to challenge you, even if you vote yes on this, to work together to find a way to land this aircraft. Times are going to change.”