Georgia Democratic leaders on Thursday blasted Gov. Brian Kemp and the state’s Republican leadership for Georgia’s unusually high number of children dropped from Medicaid: 149,000 as of September. Their press conference included a mother of three who spoke about losing insulin coverage for her diabetic son because of red tape.
The Democrats spoke following action this week by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, who called out Georgia and eight other states for dropping too many children from the insurance plan. He also said the states didn’t take needed steps to ensure eligible children stayed covered. Kemp has since announced funding to address the problem. The governor did not respond to the Democrats Thursday.
Federal officials and public advocates believe many of the children who have been dropped still qualify for coverage but were dropped in error — most often due to paperwork errors by the family or by the state.
“It’s a tragedy,” Georgia House Minority Leader James Beverly said in the online press conference. “It’s a tragedy that should have been avoided.” He and the other leaders suggested that Kemp and his GOP colleagues should have used the state’s $11 billion budget reserves to staff and design a better enrollment system.
Medicaid is the government’s health coverage for the poor. Following the end of the pandemic, all states are going back through their Medicaid caseloads to recertify those who are eligible and remove those who are not. Georgia insures all low-income children and some low-income adults.
But the rate at which the state is eliminating children from coverage is well above average. And the vast majority of people that Georgia has disenrolled were never even evaluated, but dropped for lack of paperwork. Patients who have been through the state’s system say it gives conflicting information and its tools are broken.
Kemp this week announced he had approved a detailed program funded with $54 million in federal pandemic relief funds to bolster the understaffed effort and fix problems in the system. The announcement came one month after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on the broken enrollment system, and hours after Becerra called out the state. Kemp’s spokesman said the AJC’s investigation had no influence on Kemp’s decision.
The leaders’ press conference Thursday included a mother of three who just went through the process, called “redetermination.”
The mother, Teresa Acosta, said she received a notice to reapply for Peach State Health Plan Medicaid, and called the Division of Family and Children Services, or DFCS. She said she was told her paperwork was fine and her three kids — ages 17, 15 and 14 — would remain insured. But after the deadline passed, the next time her 14-year-old needed his insulin, the company told her she was no longer insured and would have to pay cash.
They had to ration medication for a week, said Acosta. Then they scrounged for other types of insulin that she could afford. Her son got sick and missed much of August school because of medication issues, she said.
“This is what administrative incompetence results in,” said Rep. Michelle Au, a Johns Creek Democrat who is also a physician. “Risking the health and lives of Georgia’s kids. Let’s be clear about this: Governor Kemp and his administration are failing our children. And the worst part of this is that none of this had to happen.”
Such problems might now be on the road to a fix. Au and the other Democrats acknowledged a recent infusion of federal cash to help with Medicaid redeterminations.
“I’m glad we’re addressing this issue in some partial way,” Au said. “But the larger issues of the underfunding and understaffing of DFCS and all the the organizations that are helping to re-enroll is at the root of this problem. And this is only a partial fix and a BandAid on a much bigger issue.” DFCS is run by the state’s Department of Human Services.
As part of the Kemp administration’s announcement of additional funds this week, his office also announced it would suspend disenrollments for children starting early in 2024. But it did not say whether that meant it would give parents more time to sort out their cases once notified, as some other states have done. It did not mention giving families disenrolled for paperwork in 2023 a second chance.
On Monday, in response to Becerra’s letter, Kemp’s spokesman, Garrison Douglas, suggested the federal government was to blame.
“We are following the process initiated and mandated by the Biden-Harris administration, which has once again missed an opportunity to urge families to fill out their paperwork,” Douglas said in a written statement to the AJC.
“Rather than diminish the important work being done by dedicated and tireless caseworkers and pit states against one another, we hope Secretary Becerra joins us in our efforts to encourage families who are going through this federally initiated process to complete the paperwork required by the same federal process to remain covered,” Douglas said.
About 2.8 million Georgians were covered by Medicaid as the rolls swelled during the pandemic and no one had to re-apply. Georgia Medicaid covers more than half of births in the state.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution could not immediately verify Acosta’s account of her Medicaid difficulties. But they are similar to problems other patients and parents have recounted to the AJC in its investigation of Georgia’s Medicaid system.
The Gateway computer system gives conflicting or incomplete instructions. Phone help lines stay busy. Caseworker voicemails stay full. People are told that as a last resort they can come to the DFCS offices that dot the state. However DFCS caseworkers are still often working remotely, and all they may find at the DFCS office is a person who is willing to take a message.
Acosta said the experience was harrowing.
“I was in shock. I made multiple phone calls every single day. I left messages with every person I could,” said Acosta, who lives in Dunwoody. The Medicaid Gateway computer system didn’t do what she needed, she said. When she showed up in person to DFCS offices, a security guard turned her away saying no one was there.
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