Georgia lawmakers have proposed a bill that would allow residents to apply for Medicaid.
Senate Bill 339 instructs the Georgia Department of Community Health to create a new program that will allow any resident, regardless of income level or insurance status, to purchase a Medicaid plan at the same cost as the state.
The bill would provide another “cost-effective” option for Georgia residents, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Sally Harrell, D–Atlanta. Georgia’s health-care system ranks 46th out of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to the personal finance website WalletHub.
“There are people whose private plans are not working for them,” Harrell said. “So, Senate Bill 339 gives them another option, beyond what they may be getting from their employer.”
Medicaid is partially funded by the state and federal government and is at no cost to its participants. As of November, there were 1.8 million Georgians enrolled in Medicaid.
The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates the mean cost per enrollee in the Georgia Medicaid program is $4,398. The federal government covers 67 percent of that cost. The state administers the program that caters to low-income families, the disabled, pregnant women and the elderly, according to Georgia’s current guidelines.
The income eligibility threshold for an adult that doesn’t fall under the program’s population base is up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level or a little more than $12,000 annually.
Under the federal Affordable Care Act, residents also can apply for plans through an online marketplace that meets federal mandates for affordability and coverage. Harrell said the bill will address some of the issues residents face with other plans.
“Maybe their monthly premiums are over $1,000 a month, and they have a $10,000 deductible,” she said. “So even though they’re paying out all this cash, they still have to spend $500, when they go to the doctor and they don’t have that because they’re spending all their money on premiums.”
Gov. Brian Kemp requested a partial Medicaid expansion from the Trump Administration in December that would raise the eligibility threshold to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. More than 400,000 Georgians would be eligible for coverage under that scenario, which would cost taxpayers $323 million over the next five years, according to Kemp’s office.
Unlike the current Medicaid program, Kemp’s partial expansion would include a work requirement. Critics of Kemp’s plan decry the work requirement and say that the plan leaves out 200,000 residents who would be covered under a full expansion that would raise the income requirements to 133 percent of the poverty level.
Harrell said her bill not only allows anyone who wants Medicaid to apply, but it also saves the state some of the financial responsibility that comes with administrating the program.
“The consumers cover the whole cost, which should turn out to be slightly cheaper than private market plan,” she said.
Harrell asked the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday to review the bill, which also calls for a study committee and an actuarial study of the proposal.
