Kemp, Biden in standoff over plan to block ACA site

State has spent $31M on governor’s embattled proposal.

Georgia has spent $31 million on Gov. Brian Kemp’s embattled proposal to block Georgians from shopping for health insurance on the federal healthcare.gov website, Kemp’s office told the Biden administration in a letter Thursday.

Kemp’s office suggested in the letter that the Biden administration was attempting to overturn the Trump administration’s approval of the Georgia “waiver” plan. The letter said that rescinding the previous administration’s approval would not only be illegal, it also would make a waste of that $31 million investment.

Kemp has argued that Georgians will find it easier to shop for insurance from private companies, because they are more motivated to be consumer-friendly. Opponents say that private companies actually put their own profits over the need to fully explain all options to consumers. They say consumers already have the ability to shop for insurance from private companies, and they choose not to.

Just over 700,000 Georgians purchased plans for 2022 coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplace exchange. The vast majority do so via healthcare.gov. On healthcare.gov, unlike individual companies’ sites, a shopper sees all eligible plans placed together so they can compare them.

The “waiver” proposal would block Georgians from shopping on healthcare.gov. The proposal, drawn up by Kemp aides working with officials in the Trump administration, would instead direct Georgia shoppers to contact information for private insurance companies and brokers to get help. Consumers in Georgia already have access to those private companies and websites. They also can use a privately run version of healthcare.gov that some agents think works better, healthsherpa.com. Georgians would continue to have access to that under Kemp’s plan.

Supporters of the waiver plan said it would produce more options for Georgians. That should mean more health insurance plans to choose from, said Chris Denson, director of policy and research at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a libertarian-leaning think tank. “The state received approval from (the federal government in 2020) to proceed with the implementation,” and the Biden administration has no authority to undo that, Denson said.

Opponents of the Kemp plan say that research shows that both private companies and private insurance agencies instead try to make the biggest profit they can. They say studies show a history of selling consumers plans that don’t best meet their needs.

“Governor Kemp’s plan to shut down the most popular enrollment pathway for Georgians buying their own health insurance is a gamble,” betting that people won’t give up on shopping for insurance entirely, said Laura Colbert, director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, an organization that supports the ACA and Medicaid expansion.

The waiver was approved by the Trump administration two days before the 2020 election, which left the implementation to the Biden administration. Knowing that if Trump lost the election a Biden administration likely would look askance at the proposal, Trump aides changed its standard contract to make it harder for any future administration to revoke the waiver.

Indeed, the letter from Kemp’s office is the latest salvo in a battle between the Kemp administration and the Biden administration over Kemp’s health care waiver proposals. Rather than providing a “corrective action plan,” Kemp’s office instead pushed back in the letter and said Washington was just trying to stop the proposal. The standoff virtually assures that the battle will wind up in court.