Georgia
Georgia Medicaid program with work requirement off to slow start even as thousands lose coverage
![Georgia Medicaid program with work requirement off to slow start even as thousands lose coverage](https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/wirestory_3e44d6eaa3c4e07e30ca7d65892f958b_12x5_992.jpg)
ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed paperwork creating a new state health plan for low-income residents to much fanfare at the state Capitol three years ago.
But public health experts and advocates say since it launched on July 1, state officials appear to be doing little to promote or enroll people in the nation’s only Medicaid program that makes recipients meet a work requirement.
The Georgia Department of Community Health, which has projected up to 100,000 people could eventually benefit from Georgia Pathways to Coverage, had approved just 265 applications by early August.
“If we’re talking about directed outreach to the population that would most likely be eligible and interested, I haven’t seen anything,” said Harry Heiman, a health policy professor at Georgia State University.
Heiman and other experts say the program’s slow start reflects fundamental flaws missing from Medicaid expansions in other states, including the extra burden of submitting and verifying work hours. And some critics note it’s happening just as the state, as part of a federally mandated review, is kicking tens of thousands of people off its Medicaid rolls — at least some of whom could be eligible for Pathways.
“We’ve chosen a much more complicated and lengthy process that will take a long time even for the few folks who get coverage,” said Laura Colbert, executive director of the advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.
The Biden administration has already tried to revoke Georgia’s Medicaid plan once and will be monitoring it, so any missteps could have broader consequences. They could also hamper future efforts by Republicans to make Medicaid eligibility dependent on work.
A spokesman for the governor’s office, Garrison Douglas, said enrollment would grow as applications continue to be reviewed.
“While the federal government initiated and dictated a process for re-determining the qualifications of traditional Medicaid recipients, Georgia is the only state in the country simultaneously offering a new pathway to healthcare coverage and opportunity,” he said in a statement.
The state’s department of community health said it was engaging stakeholders, community partners and others to help get the word out about the program. It did not provide details about that effort.
“There’s still some more work that we have to do for Pathways,” Lynnette Rhodes, executive director of DCH’s Medical Assistance Plans division, said at a meeting this month. “But overall…the program is working.”
The state launched Pathways just as it began a review of Medicaid eligibility following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Federal law prohibited states from removing people from Medicaid during the three-year emergency.
Georgia has already cut more than 170,000 adults and kids from Medicaid and is expected to remove thousands more as the yearlong review of all 2.7 million Medicaid recipients in the state continues. Nationwide, more than a million people have been dropped from Medicaid, most for failing to fill out paperwork.
The department of community health said it delayed the reevaluations of 160,000 people who were no longer eligible for traditional Medicaid but could qualify for Pathways to help them try to maintain health coverage. It was not immediately clear whether the state reached out to those people and helped guide them to apply for Pathways.
“From what we have seen thus far, they are not doing anything affirmatively to get these people enrolled in Pathways,” said Cynthia Gibson, an attorney with the Georgia Legal Services Program who helps people obtain Medicaid coverage.
In contrast, Oklahoma officials implementing a voter-approved expansion of Medicaid in 2021 moved people in existing state insurance programs directly into the expansion pool without the need for a new application, according to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. Nearly 100,000 people were enrolled in the expanded program within days of its launch.
“States have a lot of tools that they can use to help make this process go more smoothly,” said Lucy Dagneau, an advocate for Medicaid expansion with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
Oklahoma and 39 other states have expanded Medicaid eligibility to nearly all adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, $20,120 annually for a single person and $41,400 for a family of four. None of those states require recipients to work in order to qualify.
That broader Medicaid expansion was a key part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in 2010, but many Republican governors, including Kemp, rejected it. In addition to imposing a work requirement, Pathways limits coverage to able-bodied adults earning up to 100% of the poverty line — $14,580 for a single person or $30,000 for a family of four.
Kemp has argued full expansion would cost too much money. State officials and supporters of Pathways say the work requirement will also help transition Medicaid recipients to better, private health insurance, and working, studying or volunteering leads to improved health.
“I’m excited we’re moving forward in this direction,” said Jason Bearden, president of CareSource Georgia, one of the state’s Medicaid health plans. “This is good progress.”
Critics say many low-income people work informal jobs and have fluctuating hours that will make it hard for them to document the required 80 hours a month of work, volunteer activity, study or vocational rehabilitation. They also blast the lack of an exemption to the work requirement for parents and other caregivers.
For Amanda Lucas, the work requirement is insurmountable right now.
Lucas said she had no idea Pathways started in July, but even if she did, she would not qualify because she has to take care of her 84-year-old father in Warner Robins, a city about 100 miles (160 km) south of Atlanta. He had a stroke and needs her to buy groceries, make food, pick up prescriptions, pay bills and manage myriad other tasks, she said.
With risk factors for skin cancer, she worries about living without health insurance.
“I try to keep an eye on my own moles,” she said. “I’m increasingly anxious because I’m 46.”
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Georgia
Former Georgia Southern Eagle wins third straight championship with the UFL’s Stallions
![Former Georgia Southern Eagle wins third straight championship with the UFL’s Stallions](https://gray-wtoc-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/3FILKWYGZRCSBEMZNKF2TUX7Z4.png?auth=c35d9039608606d0bc25b49d98192890a0bc25148cb44b633911fc6771c57951&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
STATESBORO, Ga. (WTOC) – For teams in any sport, winning one title is a challenge, so winning three in a row? That seems nearly impossible.
That’s exactly what the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions recently accomplished, though. And one member of the team — who’s been around for all three championships — is a familiar face in the Savannah area.
Ryan Langan attended Georgia Southern, where he was a longsnapper on the football team from 2017 to 2021. In his final season, he collected several accolades, including All-Sun Belt First Team and All-America Third Team. After school, he was just one cut away from making it to the NFL with the Chargers, but that’s when the Stallions came calling, and now he has three rings to show for his time with the team.
“I just saw an Instagram post or little thing that said ‘The only people that have done it in all of men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, football, all of the sports, is just UConn’s women’s basketball.’ So it’s definitely something for the history books, and I’m glad to be apart of it,” said Langan.
This was the first UFL Championship that Langan and the Stallions have won — the previous two being USFL titles before the merger with the XFL. But while winning is obviously the goal, the bigger picture these players have in mind is working hard enough and putting enough good film on tape in order to catch the eye of an NFL scout and get themselves back in the league.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of older folks in my life and they always tell me, you know, ‘you have the rest of your life to work.’ Just kind of still have the hopes and dreams, and not giving up on it. I believe in myself like everybody in that league believes in themselves that they can make it to the next level.”
The hope for Langan is that he’ll get a call from an NFL team in the coming weeks and be able to join their training camp next month
Copyright 2024 WTOC. All rights reserved.
Georgia
Georgia Aquarium experts help rescue 2 beluga whales from war-torn Ukraine
![Georgia Aquarium experts help rescue 2 beluga whales from war-torn Ukraine](https://www.wabe.org/app/uploads/2024/06/Oceanografics-marine-mammal-caretakers-and-one-of-Georgia-Aquariums-experts-1440x810.jpg)
Marine mammal care specialists from the Georgia Aquarium were part of a team that rescued two beluga whales from Ukraine this week and safely delivered them to an aquarium in Spain.
It’s being called “likely the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken.”
The multinational collaboration took place on Tuesday and ended with the arrival of 15-year-old male Plombir and 14-year-old female Miranda to Oceanographic Valencia. The aquarium is the largest in Europe and the only one on the continent with belugas in its facilities, according to a press release.
“The complexities of this evacuation were immense, and we have been working for weeks to prepare for it,” said Dennis Christen, senior director of animal wellbeing and behavior at the Georgia Aquarium. “I’m humbled to have been trusted to provide the belugas care and protection during their long journey to their new home.”
The operation began with a team from NEMO Dolphinarium in Kharkiv, Ukraine, taking the belugas on a 12-hour drive to Odesa, a Ukrainian city 400 miles away. There they met the team of marine mammal care specialists from the Georgia Aquarium, Oceanographic Valencia and SeaWorld, who cared for the belugas on the long journey to Oceanografic Valencia in Spain.
The route of the rescue operation. (Courtesy of Georgia Aquarium)
Dr. Daniel Garcia-Párraga, director of zoological operations at Oceanografic, said that if the belugas had stayed in Kharkiv, “their chances of survival would have been very slim.”
“I applaud AZA [Association of Zoos and Aquariums] members Oceanografic, Georgia Aquarium and SeaWorld, for convening the world’s most elite team of marine mammal experts to work with the Ukrainian aquarium on what is likely the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken,” said Dan Ashe, President and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
A team of medical, nutritional and behavioral experts at Oceanographic are helping the belugas recover from the trauma they have experienced. Two Ukrainian caregivers are also helping out for the next couple of weeks to help with the transition and care, according to the release.
“My heart is with the Ukrainian caregivers and the people of Kharkiv who had to say goodbye to Miranda and Plombir,” said the Georgia Aquarium’s Christen. “It’s not an easy thing to do, but it was best for them. I’m proud to have played a role in helping them,”
Georgia
The Devils Gone to Georgia
![The Devils Gone to Georgia](https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/georgian-elections-and-the-great-game.jpg)
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