Georgia
Closing the health care coverage gap would boost Georgia’s economy • Georgia Recorder
Nearly half a million Georgians – small business owners, farmers, veterans, and part-time, hourly, and gig workers – cannot afford private health insurance but earn just above the threshold to qualify for Medicaid.
Closing this coverage gap is not just good health care policy, it is also good economic policy. It helps not just those in need of coverage; it benefits all Georgians. Our state’s business leaders recognize that closing this gap is critical if we want a healthier, more productive workforce and want to ensure the long-term economic vitality of our state.
New research finds that closing the coverage gap would spur more than 51,000 new jobs. New jobs in outpatient and inpatient care, as you might expect, but even more new jobs outside of health care in fields such as construction, retail trade, administrative and support services, and restaurant services. Georgia households would see an average annual increase of nearly $900 in personal income when the coverage gap is closed – a statewide total increase of $3.6 billion in the pockets of Georgians. Georgia’s middle class would grow and strengthen.
The research by Regional Economic Models Inc., commissioned by the Georgia Health Initiative, projects that closing the coverage gap would stimulate significant new consumer spending and new investment in Georgia’s economy. As a result, the state’s economic output would increase by $9.4 billion and our gross domestic product by $5.5 billion in the first three years. And the benefits would extend to every part of our state. Rural Georgians are estimated to receive as much as one-sixth of the state’s total economic benefits – a projected gain of more than 5,600 new jobs and $477 million in additional personal income.
Closing the coverage gap is also critical for our ailing rural hospitals, which provide essential community services. Nine rural Georgia hospitals have closed since 2010, and as many as 18 more are now struggling and in danger of closing or dramatically reducing services. When a rural hospital shuts it doors, county residents are forced to travel hours to access care, and the community loses an important employer.
Closing the coverage gap will provide more reliable reimbursements for rural hospitals, so they can remain financially stable. It will also incentivize more primary care providers and specialty doctors to provide services in rural parts of our state, as many counties don’t have a single doctor who is a pediatrician or obstetrician.
When people lack access to preventative care and treatment for chronic conditions, their health suffers, leading to increased absenteeism and reduced productivity. Without insurance, Georgians delay seeking medical attention until their conditions escalate, resulting in more severe illnesses that require longer absences from work. This not only harms individuals and families but also strains our workplaces and drives up health costs for everyone.
Closing the coverage gap is fiscally responsible. It would bring home $3.6 billion of our federal tax dollars rather than sending them to other states. Washington would pay 90% of the cost of closing the coverage gap plus provide a $550 million bonus for each of two years. State savings in child welfare and law enforcement would also result.
Seventy-six percent of Georgians, including 63% of independents and a majority of Republicans, support closing the coverage gap. Still, at the end of its session in March, the Georgia General Assembly voted to create a commission for further study. We are pleased that the issue remains active but urge legislators to plan now for bold action in the next session, not another report that goes nowhere. The economy of our state demands no less.
People cheer for President Trump en route to his speaking engagement at the Coosa Steel Corporation on Feb. 19 in Rome, Ga. Trump delivered remarks on the economy and affordability as the state started voting to replace the seat vacated by former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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ATLANTA — Voters in Northwest Georgia are choosing who should replace former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Voting closes in the district’s special election on Tuesday night.
The election will test the weight of President Trump’s endorsement of one of the candidates in a crowded race. Some voters say the president’s choice is not who they think would best support the conservative MAGA movement championed by both Trump and Greene.
Greene resigned at the beginning of this year, leaving Georgia’s 14th Congressional District without representation in Congress — and slimming the GOP’s majority in the House — following a bitter split with Trump.
Greene rose to prominence over five years in office as a strong ally of Trump, bombastically attacking critics and pushing the MAGA movement’s “America First” policy. Yet the two had a very public clash after she pushed for the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Greene has also been sharply critical of Trump’s actions abroad, saying he has strayed from his promises to focus domestically.
With Trump now in the second year of his second term, other high-profile spats with key parts of his MAGA coalition have erupted over his administration’s handling of other issues, including sweeping tariffs, immigration policy and more. More recently, rifts have emerged over the war with Iran.
Some, like Greene, argue that though Trump helped create the “America First” worldview, he is not the sole arbiter of what it looks like.
Most of the GOP candidates in the special election have said they want to focus on Trump’s priorities and the concerns of their district, rather than become headlines themselves — an approach they say Greene embraced in her public disputes with Democrats and even with members of her own party.
“The difference between Marjorie and I is I will not use the press to become a celebrity,” Republican Star Black said during a candidate forum on Feb. 16. “I will use the press to actually show what I have done — the accomplishments,”
Trump has endorsed Clay Fuller, a district attorney in northwest Georgia for the state’s Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit. He emphasized his support last month during a visit to Rome, part of the state’s 14th District, where he held a rally to tout his administration’s economic policy.
Fuller called himself a “MAGA warrior” at the event.
Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller (left) shakes hands with President Trump as he arrives on Air Force One at Russell Regional Airport on Feb. 19 in Rome, Ga.
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“I really like him,” said rally attendee Jill Fisher. “I think he’s a strong candidate, seems like a very nice family man with some great values. And I think he’ll add a lot to Congress.”
Highlighting Fuller’s military service as an Air Force veteran, an ad for his campaign says, ” ‘America First’ is the story of his life.”
Fuller faces several other GOP candidates in the primary, including former state Sen. Colton Moore. Moore won elections for the state Legislature in the district before and is considered one of the most right-leaning lawmakers at the state level.
“I’m 100% pro-Trump,” Moore declared in his campaign announcement video.
He’s made a few headlines of his own. Last year, Moore was arrested for attempting to enter the House chambers in Atlanta to attend the State of the State address by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp. Moore argued he had a constitutional right to enter the chamber. Moore had been banned from entering the chambers by the state’s Republican House Speaker Jon Burns for disparaging comments he made about a late Georgia lawmaker at his portrait unveiling.
Moore’s record matters for some GOP voters even more than Trump’s endorsement. Less Dunaway, 14th district voter, says he’s a strong supporter of Trump, but thinks Moore will do a better job carrying out the president’s agenda than Trump’s own pick.
“He actually knows what he’s doing,” Dunaway said of Moore. “He was a state representative, a state senator. He was the first one to fight the people over the 2020 election in Georgia.”
Moore was one of a group of GOP state lawmakers who called on lawmakers to investigate or impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after she charged Trump and others with trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, when Trump and his allies pushed baseless claims of widespread election fraud.
Fuller insists Trump made the right choice in supporting his bid.
“I think they’re looking for someone to carry President Trump’s banner, support his agenda, and fight for him on Capitol Hill,” Fuller told Georgia Public Broadcasting last month.
Still some Republicans who attended the February rally left undecided.
“I don’t just blindly follow what [Trump] says,” said Clay Cooper of Rome.
Still, Cooper said that Trump’s endorsement means he will give Fuller more thought. “[Fuller is] someone that [Trump] thinks aligns very much with his messaging, with his actions, so that certainly weighs in,” Cooper said.
Unlike a partisan primary, all the candidates — Republicans, Democrats and third party candidates — will be on the same ballot for voters in the special election. If no one gets over 50% of the vote, the two top vote-getters regardless of party will advance to a runoff on April 7.
Follow the results below as polls close on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
NPR’s Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
Mableton, one of Georgia’s youngest cities, is heralded as an example to follow for its artificial intelligence policies.
(Illustration: Marcie LaCerte for the AJC)
When you think about the American cities on the cutting edge of technology, which ones come to mind?
Maybe tech hubs like Austin, Texas; Boston; or San Jose, California? Maybe New York City or Los Angeles?
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Mableton Mayor Michael Owens embraces artificial intelligence, calling it an equalizer. (Courtesy)
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‘Allergic to file cabinets’
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Mableton is home to Six Flags Over Georgia. (Courtesy of Six Flags Over Georgia)
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Creating boundaries
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Mableton officials cut the ribbon for the city’s first permanent office in May 2025 (Courtesy)
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Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. He’s been with the newspaper since 2018 and enjoys diving into complex stories that affect people’s lives.
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