Potential for Expanded Health Coverage in Georgia Amid Medicaid Roll Purge

Over 430,000 Uninsured Adults Could Gain Coverage if Medicaid is Broadened, Despite Ongoing Eligibility Purges

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns is pushing for lawmakers to consider expanding health coverage in the state, but is careful not to label it as Medicaid expansion.
Currently, Georgia is one of 10 states that do not cover people with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty line, as envisioned in President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp launched a limited expansion in July, offering coverage to able-bodied adults earning up to the poverty line, but requiring them to document 80 monthly hours of work, study, rehabilitation or volunteering for eligibility.
More than 430,000 uninsured Georgia adults could gain coverage if Medicaid is expanded, according to projections by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
Any expansion would come as Georgia and other states are purging millions off the Medicaid rolls who had been retained during the pandemic without proving continuing eligibility.