… [Read more]States across the country are taking advantage of new federal funding to extend health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, while boosting investment in health care systems. Many states are saving millions of dollars in their own budgets, thanks to new federal money. At the same time they are making

About 50,000 uninsured Georgians in the 10-county Coastal Georgia region could get guaranteed health coverage if Georgia accepts new federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility. That is about half the area residents between 18 and 64 without health coverage in 2012, the last year of available data. It’s the third… [Read more]

… [Read more]Georgia’s refusal to expand Medicaid to cover more than 500,000 uninsured people will cost the state’s health care system about $34 billion in federal money over the next decade, according to a new report by two well-respected research organizations.
Georgia’s hospitals alone will lose out on almost $13 billion. That

Adults in Georgia are more likely to go without health coverage than people in all but two other states, according to a new Gallup survey… [Read more]. Georgia’s adult uninsured rate of 20.2 percent is worse than only Texas’ 24 percent and Mississippi’s 20.6 percent and clocks in nearly 7 points

… [Read more]States that take advantage of new federal money available to extend Medicaid coverage to more residents are seeing substantial declines in uninsured rates this year. It makes sense. Greater Medicaid eligibility increases health coverage, and updated numbers from 2014 provide yet more compelling evidence that Georgia’s failure to expand Medicaid

States that expanded Medicaid eligibility to close their state’s coverage gap experienced substantial and nearly immediate reductions in charity care cases due to greater Medicaid payments. Those are the findings of a new report by the Colorado Hospital Association… [Read more], adding new support for the case to increase health coverage

… [Read more]Georgia’s recently appointed Rural Hospital Stabilization Committee will convene Monday, June 9 for the first time and it should seize the opportunity to fix a health care access problem that cries out for a comprehensive solution.
Hospitals are closing in rural Georgia at an alarming rate, including Charlton Memorial, the

Categories: Author, Blog, Health Care, Timothy Sweeney | Comments (1)

… [Read more]As published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on May 11, 2014
A quick scan of recent headlines could leave you with the impression two state laws approved this year all but end any conversation about Medicaid expansion in Georgia. Fortunately that isn’t the case, for the sake of more than 500,000

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Misty Williams just got a well-deserved laurel from the Columbia Journalism Review for her exemplary two-part series that clearly explains the tremendous downside to Georgia’s choice not to expand Medicaid.
The second installment… [Read more] of the series last Sunday took a detailed look at the policy choice Georgia

… [Read more]Georgia is home to more residents without health insurance coverage than all but four states. Still, state lawmakers used the 2014 to focus on ways to make it more difficult for Georgians to access benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).   Georgia is left with its most pressing health care

Categories: Author, Blog, Health Care, Timothy Sweeney | Comments (1)