Education reform? Check. More revenue for transportation maintenance? Check. What’s missing here? Ahhh, Georgia’s ailing health care system didn’t get much attention from state lawmakers as they wound down the 2015 session this week. Kudos to House and Senate leaders
School bus drivers get to keep their health insurance next year under the state budget passed by the state House, but at the expense of local school systems and taxpayers. Read more.
Nearly one in five people in Georgia still lack health insurance while other southern states that expanded Medicaid saw dramatic improvement of uninsured rates, according to the director of health policy for the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute. Read more.
The proposed 2016 state budget directs $3.6 billion from the general fund to Georgia’s three health care focused agencies, the departments of community health, public health, and behavioral health and developmental disabilities. The total reaches $4.2 billion when you add
Bus drivers and other school employees who work less than 30 hours a week won’t be eligible to enroll in the state health insurance program under a state Department of Community Health proposal. Read more.
You may have seen recent published claims that Georgians left without health insurance as a result of the state’s failure to expand Medicaid can simply get no-cost coverage through the new Health Insurance Marketplace. Not so fast. First, let’s be
Expanding Medicaid eligibility to cover more uninsured adults beginning in 2014 would benefit Georgians from all walks of life, urban and rural, older and younger adults, and hundreds of thousands of workers without coverage. A new “HealthVoices” report from the
State officials claim Medicaid expansion is unaffordable by overstating the real cost of covering newly eligible Georgians. State estimates claim it will cost $4.5 billion to expand Medicaid. But the official estimate includes more than $2 billion of future costs
The Saporta Report features Georgia Budget and Policy Institute’s Director of Health Policy Timothy Sweeney’s op-ed on Medicaid expansion. As published in the Saporta Report. A rule of thumb holds that when something happens three times in short order, it’s
GBPI Director of Health Policy Timothy Sweeney’s op-ed on Medicaid expansion is featured in the Saporta Report; read full article here.
The budget primer outlines the state budget for the year, recognizes substantial changes from the preceding year and provides a clear-eyed view on what lawmakers have prioritized for our state. This year, there will also be a focus on budget trends over the full eight years of Gov. Kemp’s tenure as we prepare for Georgia’s next leaders to take office.
Our budget primer is slated to be published the first day of the fiscal year, July 1. Join us for our virtual town hall to discuss our data, or request a physical copy of the primer to be sent to your address.
Submit public comment on Georgia’s Pathways to Coverage program extension by February 20th – just complete this easily fillable form:
