Biggest issue of the session
January 24, 2007 at 3:17 pm by Web Editor in News
Washington lawmakers snoozed through the coming train wreck. Now the state is scrambling to minimize the damage of a potential shortfall of federal money for Georgia’s PeachCare program.
State Rep. Kathy Ashe, D-Atlanta, calls it the biggest, most discussed single issue of the session: how to provide health insurance for the 270,000 children of low- and moderate-income Georgians who stand to lose their access to PeachCare. According to the state Department of Community Health, Georgia will run out of federal dollars for PeachCare by the end of February or March of this year. Says Alan Essig, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, "While DCH would still have approximately $30 million in cash to pay previously incurred bills (through May) the agency reports that funds would not be sufficient to pay for continued coverage of children beyond March 2007." The state needs between $60 million and $80 million to keep the children enrolled in PeachCare, Essig says.
We’re talking about kids here.
"We have 300,000 children in Georgia who are uninsured," Ashe says. "We need to make sure the 270,000 who are insured through PeachCare continue to have access to health insurance."
Since only federal funds can be used toward the program, Georgia lawmakers can’t step in and fund PeachCare without changing state law. On Tuesday morning, Ashe and other members of the House Children and Youth Committee heard testimony at the state Capitol from Voices for Georgia’s Children, an advocacy group. Policy Director Lauren Waits urged state representatives to make the necessary changes to the law and devise a plan B in the event the feds can’t dredge up the money in time.
"There are state-based solutions," Waits said. "There’s no reason why children should lose their health insurance."
State lawmakers can either change the law to allow the Department of Community Health to make use of state funds, or allow the state to transfer the children to Medicaid rolls and temporarily cover them through that federal program until the feds get the funding together for PeachCare.
"Medicaid is not a block grant," Waits said. "It’s based on a population the state chooses to insure."
Ashe’s legislative colleagues such as Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, are working with the new Democratic U.S. Congress to try to get the funds in place in the next two to three months.
But Ashe agrees with Waits that the state Legislature needs to do more — just in case.
"We have to have a plan B in place to show families that we’re serious about taking care of these children," the legislator says.
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