BRIDGE Georgia Statement on Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage Commission’s First-year Report

Coalition Applauds CHCC’s Initial Steps and Looks Forward to Robust Exploration of Medicaid Expansion

Natalie Crawford, Chair of BRIDGE Georgia and Founder & Executive Director of Georgia First, released the following statement today:

This week, the Comprehensive Healthcare Coverage Commission (CHCC) released its first-year report outlining its efforts over the past year. BRIDGE Georgia, a healthcare coalition that advocates for closing the health insurance coverage gap for nearly 300,000 hard-working Georgians, commends CHCC Chair Caylee Noggle for prioritizing the educational needs of CHCC appointees by providing a robust introduction to a wide array of Georgia’s existing healthcare agencies, programs, and initiatives in 2024. We believe this was a critical first step to ensuring informed commission decision-making. We also applaud CHCC appointees’ thought-provoking discussions over the course of the year and their dedication to addressing the serious healthcare challenges facing our state.

The CHCC provided an insightful first-year report, and the BRIDGE Georgia coalition is encouraged by the Commission’s emphasis on improving access, continuity of care, and maternal and child health, as these are some of Georgia’s most pressing healthcare needs. The seven initial opportunities identified and highlighted in the report are a good start to addressing some of those needs, but we continue to believe it’s time for Georgia to close the coverage gap and maximize our federal tax dollars available by expanding Medicaid coverage to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). This is a missed opportunity to enhance access to affordable coverage that will yield a positive economic impact for our state. Regarding the report’s seven opportunities, BRIDGE Georgia:

• Concurs that administrative simplifications are needed in several areas and fully supports addressing coverage “churn” by implementing continuous Medicaid eligibility for children from birth to age six. Uninterrupted access to essential healthcare services for children during their critical developmental years not only supports lifelong health outcomes but fosters better educational preparedness. Given Georgia’s poor literacy rates, this recommendation provides secondary support for the ongoing work of existing state entities such as the Georgia Council on Literacy.
• Supports the proposal to expand eligibility within the Planning for Healthy Babies program to include mothers of low-birth-weight infants. This expansion could significantly improve maternal and infant health outcomes and would further support the gains already made in this area over the last decade.
• Agrees that extending Medicaid eligibility to Georgians living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is another critical step for closing the coverage gap in Georgia.
• Believes exploring improvements to Georgia Pathways to CoverageTM is imperative to increasing access to coverage and improving current enrollment numbers; mitigating unnecessary administrative burdens, thereby improving the participant experience and easing state staffing impacts; and improving fiscal responsibility.
• That said, fully expanding Medicaid eligibility to 138% FPL is critical for reducing barriers to coverage for the nearly 300,000 hard-working Georgians who fall into the healthcare coverage gap, making too much to qualify for Medicaid but not earning enough to afford private healthcare coverage. The current reported Pathways cost of $40 million to date is not fiscally responsible or sustainable and does not allow the state to fully maximize its federal benefits.
• Supports additional examination of provider reimbursement rates and parity studies to help ensure proper provider reimbursements across all types and sizes of providers.
• Agrees that Georgia must invest in and explore innovative ways to expand Georgia’s healthcare workforce. In fact, the 2024 economic impact study, commissioned by a BRIDGE Georgia coalition member and conducted by Regional Economic Modeling, Inc. (REMI), projects more than 51,000 new jobs in Georgia — which includes healthcare positions — if Georgia were to expand Medicaid eligibility to 138% of FPL. Additional exploration and innovation are definitely warranted, but this is a common-sense first step that 40 other states, both red and blue, have already taken. Doing so would rapidly bring $3.6 billion of Georgians’ federal taxes back home to serve the healthcare needs of our own citizens.
• Concurs that examining incentives for both Medicaid members and providers is an important CHCC step for identifying ways to expand access to coverage and improve overall health outcomes.

Improved access to quality healthcare for low-income Georgians will not only help address Georgia’s too-large uninsured population, but also move us toward building a nationally-recognized healthcare system that bridges gaps in coverage and care, ensuring all Georgians can thrive. BRIDGE Georgia extends our thanks to the CHCC members for their work over the past several months. We are eager to collaborate as this important work advances and look forward to the Commission’s future work and recommendations, to include its robust exploration of Medicaid expansion.