Criticism Raised Over Bill to Give Legislature Control of Medicaid Expansion

February 17th, 2014

Senate Democrats were critical of a Georgia House bill Monday that would give the state legislature the final say on any future Medicaid expansion. The comments come after the fourth rural hospital to close in the past two years shut down last week.

Senate Minority leader Steve Henson said Governor Deal and bill sponsors are trying to kick the ball out of their court in an election year. “We did not take charge by the legislature of the ACA, Affordable Care Act or the expansion three years ago. We didn’t do it four years ago. We didn’t do it two years ago. We didn’t do it last year. We’re doing it this year for politics.”

Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Senator Jason Carter also accused governor Deal of passing the buck and playing politics with the health of Georgia residents. “Why is it that the governor wants to wash his hands of this responsibility? The answer is that as these rural hospitals close over the summer they want to be able to say it’s not their fault, nothing I can do about it, because the legislature has to make that decision.”

But Republican Senate floor leader Charlie Bethel rose to the Governor’s defense. “I don’t think anyone who has watched politics and the political theater of Georgia over the last year or several years could really respectfully and seriously make such a claim. To say that Governor Deal is not putting forth a position and clearly and forcefully putting forward a position is disingenuous at best.”

This was how Deal spokesman Brian Robinson responded.

“This has tremendous budgetary implications. It only makes sense that the legislature, given by our Constitution the power to set the budget, have a say in something so important to the budget. Jason Carter is saying that he doesn’t want to take a vote on this as a state Senator. That’s wrong.”

Last week, the governor said he was fine with the bill. Deal turned down Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, saying it would cost the state $2.5 billion dollars over ten years. But supporters of expansion argue the federal government would pick up 100 percent of the expansion costs for the first three years and 90 percent after that. They also say it would aid rural hospitals by turning many uninsured patients into paying ones. Others say one of the main reasons rural hospitals are closing is due to lack of patient volume.

The bill was introduced last week and has yet to be voted on.