Morning, y’all!
By now, the weekend’s winter ugliness is hopefully a fading memory … until you throw something in the bed of your truck and remember too late it’s still full of slush. Not that that would EVER happen to anyone we know. Today we’ll cover Savannah’s water issues and FBI Director Chris Wray’s biggest national security fear. But first, we need to talk about your health (care).
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GEORGIA BRACES FOR SURGING HEALTH CARE COSTS
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
That’s some nice health care you’ve got there … it would be a shame if you couldn’t pay for it anymore. That’s the reality hundreds of thousands of Georgians could face when subsidies for the Affordable Care Act expire at the end of the year. More than 800,000 Georgians signed up for an ACA plan when federal financial assistance was introduced during the pandemic. Now that those boosts will be going away, health care could cost a LOT more — and a LOT less people may end up being covered at all.
By the numbers: According to KFF, a nonprofit health organization, prices for ACA plans in Georgia could rise 85% without federal subsidies.
Take this hypothetical math: KFF estimates a Georgia family of four making $130,000 and paying $921 a month for coverage with subsidies would see their monthly payments increase to $1,647 without assistance. Another social policy organization estimates that, if financial help dries up, 336,000 Georgians would drop coverage and have to go uninsured.
A doctor weighs in: The AJC spoke to Dr. Nanette Wenger, a professor of medicine in the cardiology division at the Emory University School and the former chief of cardiology at Grady Memorial Hospital about the state of women’s health care in Georgia. She says the consequences people pay for having to weigh the affordability of health care are dire, especially for women.
“We have … unacceptable rates of affordable care,” Wenger says. “Georgia is one of the states that has not expanded Medicaid. More women than men delay medical care due to out-of-pocket cost. For many young women, it’s the choice between paying rent or paying for medical care.”
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FBI DIRECTOR CHRIS WRAY SPEAKS OUT
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray recently sat down with the AJC in his only exit interview with a print publication before he leaves his post for good, just a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Leaving so soon? Wray got flak last month for announcing his resignation despite having nearly three years left in his 10-year tenure. He told the AJC it was a “very, very hard personal decision for me,” but he knew his days were numbered with Trump returning to the White House. (Trump is not a fan because Wray was the FBI Director when the bureau carried out a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in 2022, leading to Trump being indicted in the classified documents case.)
“So once you accept or recognize the inevitability of that, it was my judgment after a whole lot of thought, that what was in the best interests of the FBI was for me not to drag the FBI deeper into the fray,” Wray said.
A warning: Wray, a Georgia resident who began his political career as the assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, covered a great many topics in the wide-ranging interview (which you should really read in full). When discussing threats to national security, he said the “defining threat of our generation” comes from the Chinese government.
“What I saw once I got into this job as FBI director — in terms of the breadth, the depth, the complexity, the pervasiveness of the threat from the Chinese government — blew me away,” he said. “And I’m not the kind of guy that uses expressions like ‘blow me away’ lightly.”
Wray also said the Chinese government is preparing attacks against critical U.S. infrastructure that may look very different than the kind of international threats citizens are used to.
“We’re talking about things like water treatment plants, transportation systems, the electrical grid and natural gas and oil pipelines,” he said.
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WATER FOR SAVANNAH
Credit: Courtesy of HMGMA
Credit: Courtesy of HMGMA
Gov. Brian Kemp has proposed a $502 million investment to solve a growing water crisis in Savannah. It’s a complicated set of dominos, and we’re not even going to get into the intricacies of aquifers and watershed management.
How it started: Kemp championed the building of a new Hyundai electric vehicle factory along I-16 west of Savannah. The $7.6 billion economic development project, the largest in state history, included a commitment from Hyundai to add thousands of jobs to the area by 2030. So far, so good.
How it’s going: Then the factory opened in October, and now local government is having problems supplying surface water to the factory while keeping enough water on tap for area residents.
As part of Kemp’s plan, surface water would be pulled from the nearby Savannah River to service the factory and reduce the site’s drain on other resources. There are a lot of pipes to be laid and tests to be done to make sure such a move would be safe, so the new water system isn’t expected to be in place until 2030. However, officials like Environmental Protection Division Director Jeff Cown and Richard Dunn, director of the state’s Office of Planning and Budget, are optimistic about the solution.
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L.A. ON OUR MIND
The raging Los Angeles-area wildfires have now claimed at least 24 lives, and menacing winds could spell more devastation this week by spreading the flames even further afield. Here’s the latest.
🔎 Plus, some ideas on how to help victims of the fires, including children and pets.
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MARTA MAKES THINGS AWKWARD FOR JOHN FOY
Credit: Bill Torpy
Credit: Bill Torpy
I've never seen a massage parlor ad on a bus. I don't know if I should be offended.
At the beginning of this year, MARTA stopped accepting ads on buses and other assets for alcohol, massage and tattoo parlors, title pawn or pawn shops, check cashing institutions and lawyers. In his latest opinion column, the AJC’s Bill Torpy says it’s likely an attempt to class up the transit authority’s general aesthetics. It’s also a weird situation for mega-attorney Jon Foy, whose ads for John Foy & Associates have festooned many a MARTA bus (and billboard ... and radio commercial ... and the occasional confusing nightmare) over the years.
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GA POLITICS UPDATE
The 2025 Georgia Legislative Session got underway this week, and things are already getting pretty partisan. Yesterday, the state Senate revived a committee created to investigate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the veteran prosecutor who became a political lightning rod when she charged Donald Trump and others for attempting to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral college win in Georgia in 2020.
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NEWS BITES
The viral mom who was arrested after her son walked less than a mile by himself into their small Georgia town appeared on the Tamron Hall Show
“How far do we say is it OK for your kid to go from home, and at what age?” Mineral Bluff mom Brittany Patterson said during her appearance. “Who decides that, and what gives them the authority to decide that?” Judging from the applause, the audience was largely in her favor.
Atlanta Falcons start the search for a new defensive coordinator after disappointing season end
Is Samuel L. Jackson free?
Health care AI, intended to save money, actually requires lots of expensive humans to run
Computer, show me a shocked face.
Warm up with these ATL-area jazz and blues shows
You had me at Mudcat.
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ON THIS DATE
Jan. 14, 1958
If you’ve been thinking, “Wow, this Georgia state legislative session is already contentious,” just know it’s always been that way. On this day in 1958, state lawmakers kicked off the annual session by squabbling over a proposal that would cut automobile tag taxes to $3.
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
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ONE MORE THING
What is your favorite municipal service? Mine is water treatment, followed closely by waste management. Shout out to the folks who drive the bulldozers at the Cobb County Transfer Station, you are living my dream.
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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Drop us a line at tellus@ajc.com.
Until next time.
