Medicaid Expansion Bill Clears Senate Committee Without Attachment
A state Senate committee Thursday approved a bill that would transfer the authority to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to the state Legislature. Currently, Gov. Nathan Deal – through the state Board of Community Health – has sole authority to expand Medicaid.
Before House Bill 990 was approved, Senate Health and Human Services Committee chair Renee Unterman attempted to attach separate legislation calling for partial privatization of the state’s foster care system. But Senate President Pro Tem David Shafer requested the bills be kept separate.
“I only learned at the beginning of this session the Board of Community Health could change the eligibility guidelines of the Medicaid program in a way that could jeopardize the financial stability of the state with no legislative input whatsoever and I think we ought to take up that issue alone and so I would urge we continue to find other vehicles for foster care and not use this particular one for that.”
Critics of HB 990 say the legislation will make it even tougher to convince the state to go along with the health law’s optional Medicaid expansion. More than half a million low-income Georgians stand to gain coverage.
Gov. Deal, for his part, has remained firmly opposed to expansion, saying the state can’t afford it. That’s despite the federal government offering to cover nearly all its costs.
The bill already cleared the House. The full Senate is expected to approve it next week.
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