State of Healthcare in Georgia Term Paper

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Q8. List the state legislator(s) that sit(s) on the health committee.

According to the state of Georgia's website, the Health and Human Services committee consists of the following lawmakers:

Unterman, Renee S (Chairman)

Balfour, Don Vice (Chairman)

Millar, Fran (Secretary)

Hill, Judson (Ex-Officio)

Burke, Dean (Member)

Butler, Gloria S. (Member)

Carter, Buddy (Member)

Henson, Steve (Member)

Hufstetler, Chuck (Member)

Jackson, Lester G. (Member)

Ligon, Jr., William T. (Member)

Orrock, Nan (Member)

Shafer, David (Member)

Q9. What is the state's position on health care reform? What is/was the support for reform? Is the debate ongoing?

Georgia has strongly resisted the ACA (Affordable Care Act). Despite the high rates of poverty and low rates of coverage, "Georgia opted out of the opportunity to expand Medicaid…the opportunity to expand the insurance marketplace through an exchange was not something they were interested in participating in at all" (Ragusea 2014). Residents of Georgia must go on the federal exchange to purchase insurance. However, a recently-introduced bill in the state legislature eliminated a navigator program to inform people of their right to healthcare and to help them sign up for insurance. The proposed bill would also forbid Georgia's insurance commissioner to enforce federal requirements about coverage under the ACA, such as the requirement that companies offer basic health screening and allow parents to keep their adult children on their insurance until age 26. This is considered especially disappointing given the low rates of access to preventative care in the state (Ragusea 2014).

Q10. What do you anticipate will be the influence of health care reform on your practice in this state?

Georgia seems likely to continue to resist the push for healthcare reform in the state.

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Not only has Georgia refused to expand Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor which could potentially increase coverage to the state's working poor: the new bill would effectively refuse to enforce the ACA, even though the ACA is the law of the land. This would mean that Georgia insurance companies might simply ignore aspects of the law demanding that residents be given comprehensive, fair coverage when they purchase insurance.

Because of the failure to expand Medicaid and the high-risk nature of the population, Georgia healthcare coverage is also extremely expensive. For example: If "Lee Mullins lived in Pittsburgh, he could buy mid-level health coverage for his family for $940 a month. If he lived in Beverly Hills, he would pay $1,405. But Mullins, who builds custom swimming pools, lives in Southwest Georgia. Here, a similar health plan for his family of four costs $2,654 a month" (Rau 2014). In other areas, "government subsidies are shielding people with low and moderate incomes from the full cost of the premiums" but in Georgia this is not the case and even many middle-class consumers are electing to pay the penalty mandated by the ACA rather than seek out expensive coverage with very high deductibles that they are unlikely to exceed (Rau 2014). The fact that Georgia has such variation in terms of its premiums -- "southwest Georgia, had premiums for the cheapest 'silver' plan that were double those in three other regions, including metro Atlanta" -- has soured significant population bases towards the ACA in general (Miller 2013)......

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