As there seems to be no end in sight for health care arguments, let's start with some Georgia health care facts. <\/p>\n
One, reported by Georgia Health News last week, is that the state's enrollment in Medicaid and PeachCare is now a record 1.8 million Georgians. And whether the state ultimately expands Medicaid funding or not, another 65,000 are expected to enroll during this fiscal year. <\/p>\n
That means not quite one-fifth of Georgia's population is in need of some kind of medical treatment or health insurance assistance. By comparison, Georgia Medicaid administrator Jerry Dubberly told a state legislative panel, that figure was slightly above 11.5 percent in 2000. Medicaid and PeachCare spending is now 15.57 percent of the state budget, Dubberly reported, as compared to 10.2 percent in FY 2000. And Georgia pays less per capita for Medicaid than any other state except California. <\/p>\n
It could hardly be a secret that Georgia is a poor state, or that the economic woes of the last five years have been especially severe for the working poor. (PeachCare is not welfare, but a health insurance program for \"notch\" children of families who don't qualify for public assistance and don't earn enough for private insurance.) But this swelling of the rolls is cause for alarm -- and for responsible action. Such action is the prime directive of the Joint Study Committee on Medicaid Reform, a panel created by the General Assembly and Gov. Nathan Deal. <\/p>\n
That this issue is inextricable from politics is an obvious and unfortunate reality. Expansion of Medicaid, of course, is the key component of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA or \"Obamacare\") against which many Republican governors, including Deal, are standing in the schoolhouse door, so to speak. But it's also obvious that the status quo is not sustainable, so the committee is charged with finding ways to make it so. <\/p>\n
Another fact, this one from state Department of Community Health Commissioner Clyde Reese, a member of the panel: Medicaid enrollees who are old, blind and\/or otherwise disabled make up 29 percent of the total enrollment, but account for 58 percent of the spending. <\/p>\n
Medicaid administrator Dubberly said Georgia's cost for implementing ACA, and receiving the added federal funding that goes with it, would be $26.9 million in FY 2014 and $101.7 million in FY 2015. <\/p>\n
Georgia's total budget for Medicaid and PeachCare now stands at about $2.9 billion. <\/p>\n
If Georgia can come up with its own way to make health care numbers work for Georgians who need it, more power to state leaders. If politicians need some way to comply with ACA just enough to get fed money but still save political face, that would be OK, too. <\/p>\n
The facts and the numbers are not in dispute. Neither is the need. <\/p>\n
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Read more:<\/p>\n
Health care for Georgians -- one way or another<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As there seems to be no end in sight for health care arguments, let's start with some Georgia health care facts. One, reported by Georgia Health News last week, is that the state's enrollment in Medicaid and PeachCare is now a record 1.8 million Georgians Continue reading