ATLANTA (AP) - House Democrats on Wednesday slammed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s Medicaid waiver proposal, saying it will be more expensive, cover fewer people and take longer than the full Medicaid expansion they support.
Rep. James Beverly, a Macon Democrat and chairman of the state House Democratic Caucus, called the Republican-sponsored bill “heinous” and “ill-conceived” in a press conference.
Kemp’s plan sailed through a Senate committee Tuesday. It authorizes his office to pursue Medicaid waivers from the federal government.
A waiver, as opposed to full expansion of the program, would give Georgia the flexibility to adopt a more conservative plan. Kemp has made clear that he will not consider full Medicaid expansion.
Georgia is one of 14 states that have not fully expanded Medicaid as prescribed under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The expansion was initially intended to be nationwide, but a 2012 ruling by the Supreme Court effectively made it optional for states. Most of the states that have not taken up expansion are controlled by Republicans.
Beverly said there was currently no common ground between Georgia Republicans and Democrats on Medicaid.
“There is daylight between us and them and there should be. Our idea about Medicaid expansion is superior,” Beverly said, adding that Kemp’s proposal would hurt the poor working class and veterans.
Beverly said he was especially concerned that the bill would cap Medicaid eligibility at the poverty line, instead of slightly above it, as was required under the original call to expand Medicaid under the ACA.
The federal government will pay 90 percent of the cost to expand Medicaid if the state government includes people up to 138 percent of the poverty line, Beverly said.
Fellow Democrat, Rep. William Boddie of East Point, said Georgia could get $2.2 to $2.8 billion in federal funds if it stuck by this requirement.
Boddie said a few states, such as Massachusetts, failed in attempts to get a similar match rate from the federal government after their waiver plans did not offer coverage for individuals with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty line.
Boddie expressed concern about Georgians who fell between 100 percent and 138 percent of the poverty line.
He said that workers making minimum wage - $7.25 an hour - would not be included.
Senate Democrats expressed disappointment Tuesday after Kemp’s plan was voted 9-4 through the Senate Health & Human Services Committee. They said they felt the process was rushed and did not allow for adequate debate and discussion.
Republican Sen. Blake Tillery of Vidalia, Kemp’s floor leader in the Senate, said the bill allows the governor to reject what he called a “one-size-fits-all” model of federal government control.
“It allows him to define and develop a Georgia-tailored solution to a Georgia problem,” Tillery said.
Kemp has said the measure should help lower private sector health care costs.
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