Panel would study how to provide health care coverage for uninsured

Talk that this legislative session would see a deal reached to fully expand Medicaid appears to just be talk.

Now, a study committee will likely do the talking, focusing specifically on an Arkansas program that uses federal expansion funds to purchase private health care coverage for that state’s uninsured residents.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Georgians will continue to go without coverage.

Surveys over the years have shown Medicaid expansion to be a popular topic with Georgia voters. In an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in January, 69% of respondents said Georgia should expand eligibility for Medicaid, the health care program for poor and disabled Georgians.

But Georgia remains one of 10 states that have not accepted federal funding to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Gov. Brian Kemp and other key Republicans have vigorously fought expansion, saying the program is too costly and inflexible in the long term. That’s even though the federal government would cover 90% of the cost of the expanded population, plus the state would qualify for an added incentive that would create a financial surplus.

Senior Republican leaders, however, entered this year’s session indicating they were open to a discussion about expanding Medicaid, possibly as part of a deal that would also roll back some regulations — possibly even eliminating them — to make it easier to build new hospitals.

State House Speaker Jon Burns and his deputies pressed the pause button this past week, though, proposing that the matter go to a study committee. Burns, however, made it clear he was open to discussing a broader expansion in 2025.

In a statement, Burns said he and other House Republican leaders remain “100% supportive” of a more limited expansion backed by Kemp.

That limited expansion, called Georgia Pathways to Coverage, launched in July and only extends coverage to residents who meet work or activity requirements. Through Dec. 15, fewer than 3,000 uninsured applicants have enrolled in Pathways out of an estimated 370,000 who could apply.

Democrats pushed for continuing efforts to approve a full expansion this year.

“We don’t need more meetings. We don’t need another study committee,” said Rep. Michelle Au, a Democrat from Johns Creek. “We do not need another joint commission to tabulate and recalculate the numbers that we already have.”

State House Speaker Jon Burns