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Who would gain coverage under Medicaid expansion in Georgia?
Who would gain coverage under Medicaid expansion in Georgia?
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Urban Institute research report
- Author(s):
- Simpson, Michael, (Of Urban Institute), author
Brett-Turner, Ella, author - Contributor(s):
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issuing body.
Urban Institute, issuing body. - Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, November 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Equity -- economics
Health Policy
Medicaid -- organization & administration
Medically Uninsured -- statistics & numerical data
Georgia - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), states have the option to expand Medicaid eligibility to nonelderly people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). In Georgia, 1 of the 12 states that has yet to expand Medicaid eligibility, some key stakeholders are considering adopting the policy. In an earlier report, 3.7 Million People Would Gain Health Coverage in 2023 If the Remaining 12 States Were to Expand Medicaid Eligibility (Buettgens and Ramchandani 2022), Urban researchers estimated that full Medicaid expansion in Georgia would decrease uninsurance by 448,000 people in 2023. In this report, we expand those results to show the characteristics of uninsured people in Georgia under the ACA (excluding recent temporary legislative changes, which we discuss in more detail below), people who would gain health insurance coverage if Medicaid were fully expanded, and people remaining uninsured even with Medicaid expansion. These results add detail to results presented in Buettgens and Ramchandani (2022) and are presented for 2023. We show results for eight areas: Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, and four rural regions (central, southern, western, and northern Georgia). At the time of writing, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming have not expanded Medicaid. Among adults in these nonexpansion states, only parents with very low incomes can be eligible for Medicaid with full benefits. Also, people with incomes below 100 percent of FPL are ineligible for Marketplace premium tax credits (PTCs). Thus, in nonexpansion states, many uninsured adults with incomes below 100 percent of FPL generally have no affordable health insurance options, qualifying for neither Medicaid nor PTCs for purchasing Marketplace coverage. Additionally, people with incomes between 100 and 138 percent of FPL may be ineligible for subsidized coverage if they have an offer of employer-based coverage deemed affordable. However, Medicaid has no such requirement for eligibility, so these people would gain eligibility for coverage if their states were to expand Medicaid. Since the initial Medicaid expansion under the ACA, 14 states that did not initially expand have done so, either through legislative action or ballot initiatives. Some remaining nonexpansion states are now considering Medicaid expansion, including Georgia, North Carolina, and South Dakota. In Georgia Medicaid expansion is an active topic of debate in the gubernatorial race and among legislators, and members on both sides of the aisle have shown interest.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (iv, 24 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918591688506676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918591688506676