Legislation could open path for Georgia families to keep health insurance – The Augusta Chronicle

Concerned that as many as 260,000 children in Georgia could lose health insurance when the state reconsiders their enrollment, a Georgia legislator has filed legislation that would require those families be screened to see if there are other options.

Georgia Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, filed legislation earlier this month to try to preserve coverage for children through Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids. The legislation, H.B. 1273, would establish the Medicaid Continuity of Coverage Program that would allow families to stay on their coverage for 12 months after it is determined they are no longer eligible as a way of helping them transition to other coverage. That year of transition was a recent extension from six months by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid who recognized that there could be a massive disruption to coverage if millions suddenly lose eligibility.

That concern was raised by advocates after federal legislation at the beginning of the pandemic barred states from kicking families off Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Programs like PeachCare while the Public Health Emergency order is in effect, as it has been since January 2020.

As parents have lost jobs or income, an enormous number of children have gained Medicaid or CHIP coverage during those two years, including 260,373 in Georgia, a 20.5% gain since February 2020, according to a report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Once the order is lifted, which is now expected in July, many of those families will be reevaluated and could lose the coverage they’ve gained if circumstance have changed or if the renewal letter goes to an old address, advocates said.

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Wilson’s legislation would require the state Medicaid program to work with the managed care partners that administer some of the care to share information on these families and require greater outreach and a prescreening of family eligibility before disenrolling them.

“One of the critical things is making sure we have updated contact information for these folks,” Wilson said. “In many cases it’s been over a year, even two years potentially, since they’ve had to file updated information with the state. And this is a highly mobile population, just given their employment status.”

Unlike some other states, Georgia Medicaid does not gather information the state’s other agencies may hold about a family in need as part of its outreach effort, but Wilson’s legislation would require it.

“We want to make sure we’re not just checking a box but trying to locate these folks” and giving them options for coverage, he said.

One study Wilson cited showed 70-80% would probably qualify for other coverage or subsidies to purchase care through the Healthcare Marketplace. There is also precedent for some of this: a bill passed a couple of years ago would require the state to screen children in families receiving assistance through the Georgia Food Stamp Program to see if they qualify for PeachCare coverage.

“This is of a similar mindset, just already use the information we have,” Wilson said. “It’s especially critical for Georgia to move to that mindset because we have the third highest uninsured population in the country. This is only going to add to that population. We should be trying to get more people health insurance if we can not trying to take health insurance away from folks.”

Wilson’s legislation had not yet been scheduled for a hearing in the House Health and Human Services Committee this session, which ends in April. Wilson, who is also running for the Democratic nomination for Insurance Commissioner, has made Medicaid expansion a “central tenet” of his campaign. Only the legislature can expand Medicaid in Georgia but the Insurance Commissioner can fight to keep and expand health insurance overall, he said.

“I do believe a chief responsibility of the Insurance Commissioner is to work to decrease that uninsured population,” Wilson said. “Giving people more health insurance is a good policy for everybody in Georgia.”