Gov. Brian Kemp faces a renewed political battle over his plan to revamp Medicaid in Georgia after President Joe Biden’s administration put the proposal on hold a few months after it had won approval under Donald Trump.
Georgia officials got word from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday that the status of Georgia’s plan had been shifted from “approved” to “pending.” Elizabeth Richter, the agency’s acting administrator, said in a letter that the plan’s eligibility requirement that recipients work or perform some related activity, such as attending college full-time, would be “unreasonably difficult or impossible” to meet during the coronavirus pandemic.
The move came less than a month after Biden took office and just four months after Kemp’s plan was approved by CMS under Trump’s administration. In a statement Monday, Kemp’s office accused Biden of attempting to “take away healthcare options for low-income Georgians hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Kemp and fellow Republicans have touted their Medicaid proposal, called Georgia Pathways, as a more narrowly tailored, fiscally responsible alternative to a full expansion of Medicaid services under the Affordable Care Act. The plan seeks to add an estimated 50,000 poor and uninsured Georgia residents to the Medicaid rolls in its first two years.
Democrats have criticized Kemp’s plan for doing too little, saying it would leave at least 350,000 Georgia adults uninsured because they don’t meet the threshold requirements. The hold up of Kemp’s plan has some Democrats hopeful there may be an opening for Georgia to join the 38 states that have adopted full Medicaid expansions.
