Georgia
Can a Medicaid plan that requires work succeed? First year of Georgia experiment is not promising
ATLANTA (AP) — By now, Georgia officials expected their new Medicaid plan, the only one in the nation with a work requirement, to provide health insurance to 25,000 low-income residents and possibly tens of thousands more.
But a year since its launch, Pathways to Coverage has roughly 4,300 members, much lower than what state officials projected and a tiny fraction of the roughly half-million state residents who could be covered if Georgia, like 40 other states, agreed to a full Medicaid expansion.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s office has presented Pathways as a compromise that would add people to Medicaid while also helping them transition off it. Blaming the Biden administration for delaying the program’s start, Kemp’s office says it’s redoubling efforts to sign people up.
Health and public policy experts believe the enrollment numbers, dismal even compared to what Kemp’s office had said Pathways could achieve, reflect a fundamental flaw: The work requirement is just too burdensome.
“It’s clear that the Georgia Pathways experiment is a huge failure,” said Leo Cuello, a research professor at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy.
Pathways requires all recipients to show at least 80 hours of work monthly, volunteer activity, schooling or vocational rehabilitation. It also limits coverage to able-bodied adults earning no more than the federal poverty line, which is $15,060 for a single person and $31,200 for a family of four.
Cuello noted the program makes no exceptions for people who are caring for children or other family, lack transportation, suffer from drug addiction or face a myriad other barriers to employment. Then there are people with informal jobs that make documenting their hours impossible.
In rural Clay County in southwest Georgia, Dr. Karen Kinsell said many of her patients are too sick to work. Over the last year, Kinsell has suggested Pathways to about 30 patients who might meets its requirements, but none have signed up.
“I think the general idea is it would be too much work and too complicated for little benefit,” she said.
Just going online each month to submit proof of work can be a significant obstacle, said Harry Heiman, a health policy professor at Georgia State University.
“For low-income people who are worried about staying housed and putting food on the table, one more thing to do is often one thing too many,” he said.
The program’s poor showing so far may have implications beyond Georgia. Republicans in other states in recent months also have proposed requiring work to get Medicaid. In Mississippi, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in February cited Georgia’s Pathways program as a model.
A second term for former President Donald Trump would significantly boost the prospects for such programs. The Trump administration approved Medicaid work requirement plans in 13 states, only to have the Biden administration revoke those waivers in 2021. Pathways survived after a court fight.
Georgia launched the program on July 1, 2023 with little fanfare, and public health experts say they have seen scant effort to promote it or sign people up.
The launch coincided with a federally mandated review of the eligibility of all 2.7 million Medicaid recipients in the state following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, another challenging task for Georgia officials.
Still, they did not scale-back their enrollment expectations. Days before the launch, then-Georgia Department of Community Health Commissioner Caylee Noggle told The Associated Press that Pathways could cover up to 100,000 people in year one. The 25,000 estimate had been in the state’s 2019 application for Pathways.
Garrison Douglas, a spokesman for Kemp, said in a statement that Pathways had received “extraordinary interest from thousands of low income, able-bodied Georgians,” and the state was “still fighting to reclaim the time stolen” from it by the Biden administration.
The program was supposed to launch in 2021, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services objected to the work requirement that February and later revoked it. Georgia sued and a federal judge reinstated the work mandate in 2022.
As of June 7, 2024, Pathways had 4,318 members, according to the Georgia Department of Community Health. The agency said in an email that promotion efforts have included social media content and streaming ads on TV and radio, while a “robust” outreach campaign was being planned.
“Pathways deserves more time to see if it reaches its potential,” said Chris Denson, director of policy and research at the conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
Denson said there is general agreement even among Pathways’ supporters that the state could have done a better marketing job. But he said a fundamental tenet of Pathways — transitioning people through employment, job training or other qualifying activities to private insurance — is sound, particularly given that many primary care physicians in the state are not accepting new Medicaid patients.
To critics, the actual first-year figure is all the more galling given how many people full Medicaid expansion could cover at no extra cost to the state, at least initially.
An analysis by the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute found Georgia’s Medicaid program would receive so much more federal funding under full expansion that in its first year the program could cover 482,000 residents for the same cost as 100,000 Pathways’ recipients.
North Carolina, which fully expand Medicaid in December, has enrolled nearly 500,000 people in about half the time Pathways has been in effect.
That broader Medicaid expansion was a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in 2010. In exchange for offering Medicaid to nearly all adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, states would get more federal funding for the new enrollees.
The higher eligibility limit is $20,783 annually for a single person and $43,056 for a family of four. None of the 40 states that have accepted the deal require recipients to work in order to qualify.
But Kemp, like many other Republican governors, rejected full expansion, arguing that the state’s long-term costs would end up being too high.
Republicans in the Georgia Legislature floated the possibility of full expansion in 2024 before abandoning the effort.
For now, Georgia officials show no sign of giving up on Pathways. The program is set to expire at the end of September 2025. But in February, the state sued the Biden administration to try to extend it to 2028. A federal judge heard arguments last month.
Georgia
U.S. News & World report says this Georgia favorite is one of the best restaurants to work for
Former Georgia football coach Mark Richt discusses “Chick Fil A Dawg Bowl 2024”
Former Georgia football coach Mark Richt discusses “Chick Fil A Dawg Bowl 2024” and his fundraiser to raise money for Parkinson’s and Chron’s research.
Chick-fil-A has been recognized as one of the best companies to work for in Georgia and the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report.
The company, which was founded in 1946, has been praised for its employee benefits and its commitment to creating a positive work environment.
Chick-fil-A is known for its friendly customer service and its delicious chicken sandwiches. The company has over 10,000 employees and is a major employer in the state of Georgia.
Why is Chick-fil-A the best restaurant to work for in Georgia?
According to the report, the top benefit that is provided is medical insurance. On a scale from 1 to 5, here are some of its ratings:
- Quality of pay: 3
- Stability: 4
- Work life balance: 5
Who founded Chick-fil-A?
The trio behind Chick-Fil-A is the Cathy family and siblings are Bubba, Dan, and Trudy.
For more information, visit usnews.com.
Vanessa Countryman is the Trending Topics Reporter for the the Deep South Connect Team Georgia. Email her at Vcountryman@gannett.com.
Georgia
Your Georgia Power bill will increase in January. State says hike necessary ‘to keep grid going.’
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – In January, your Georgia Power bill will increase by 3.5%.
That adjustment equates to a $5.85 increase on each monthly bill for the average resident using 1,000 kilowatt hours of energy, according to a Georgia Power spokesperson.
The Georgia Public Service Commission approved the rate increase in mid-December, following similar rate increases in 2023 and 2024.
These annual rate increases were orchestrated as part of a 2022 agreement between the commission and the utility company.
“No one wants a rate increase, but in order to keep the grid going, we have to fund it,” said Commissioner Tim Echols.
Echols said the board negotiated the rate increases to occur annually rather than all at once in 2022, to help limit the impact on Georgia consumers.
He said the state approved 60% of what Georgia Power was seeking in their proposed rate adjustments.
Echols commiserated with customers experiencing higher energy bills.
“We’ve had too many rate increases over the last three years,” Echols said.
Some customers voiced frustration over a separate bill bump this summer.
Georgia Power is expected to make $306 million in additional revenue from the January rate hike, down from the originally projected $400 million estimate in 2022, according to a state spokesperson.
“Another increase in January, so I’m mentally preparing and trying to budget for that to kind of see what that shock is going to be like,” said one Georgia Power customer named Marcus.
A Georgia Power spokesperson told Atlanta News First the company is committed to keeping utility bills affordable and said the average Georgia Power customer pays 15% less than the national average on their energy bills.
“As much as you hate having your power bill going up a few dollars, you would really hate rolling blackouts,” said Echols, who said maintaining a reliable power system is his top priority as a commissioner.
The rate increase comes as Southern Company, Georgia Power’s parent company, is reporting notable profits.
In an October earnings report, Southern Company reported earnings of $3.9 billion, compared with $3.1 billion for the same period in 2023.
The company said those earnings were partially offset by increased expenses and taxes.
A Georgia Power spokesperson also recognized the profit earnings by Southern Company, attributing the “high performance throughout the year” to weather and growth across the system, they said in a statement to Atlanta News First.
“Our parent company, Southern Company, has reported high performance throughout this year, largely due to weather and growth across our system,” the Georgia Power spokesperson said.
Said Echols: “I feel like the investments have made Georgia a more reliable place to live and to work.”
On Tuesday, a Georgia Power spokesperson pointed to customer assistance programs for those struggling to keep up with their energy bills.
Earlier this year, the utility company expanded an income-qualified discount program for those with limited incomes and in need of financial resources.
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(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
ATLANTA – Two of the federal inmates on death row whose lives have been spared by President Joe Biden are from the state of Georgia.
Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row on Monday morning, converting their punishments to life imprisonment.
PREVIOUS STORY: Biden gives life in prison to most federal death row inmates: What to know
Those two inmates from Georgia are Meier Jason Brown and Anthony Battle.
FULL LIST OF INMATES
Battle was convicted and sentenced to death in 1997 for killing a prison guard. He was the first Georgia man to receive a federal death sentence after Congress restored capital punishment in 1988.
Battle was sentenced to die after he killed 31-year-old guard D’Antonio Washington. Battle, who was serving a life sentence for the 1987 murder of his wife, repeatedly struck Washington in the back of the head with a hammer at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when Battle was given a chance at the end of his trial to ask jurors to spare his life, he told them that Washington “died like a dog.”
Brown was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the fatal stabbing of a postal worker.
Brown was sentenced to death by a federal jury in Savannah.
On Nov. 30, 2002, Brown killed 48-year-old postmistress Sallie Gaglia during a robbery. He reportedly stabbed her 10 times.
In a statement, Biden said, “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system.”
“Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” Biden continued. “These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.”
Biden also said that he condemns the murders and grieves for the victims, but he was guided by his conscience and his experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and president. He added that he is “convinced more than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
With Biden’s move, there are now just three federal inmates still facing execution.
They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.
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