Capitol Recap: Georgia moves to set up its own health coverage website

If that doesn’t happen, Georgians could just continue to use healthcare.gov, even if the Kemp administration starts up a state-run website.

Healthcare.gov allows a shopper to see the different policies for which they qualify, along with prices for each while calculating in federal subsidies that the shopper would receive. The site shows all those options in the same place so the shopper can compare.

Kemp originally proposed a plan to block Georgians from shopping for health plans on healthcare.gov without offering an alternative that would allow them to compare plans. Instead, they could be directed to insurance companies’ websites, private agents or other already existing alternatives. That proposal won approval from the Trump administration, but then the Biden administration suspended it.

Georgia GOP leaders long opposed the Affordable Care Act, which became federal law during the Obama administration. A decade ago, state Republicans made it illegal for Georgia to help people sign up for coverage under a state-based shopping website. SB 65 strips away that ban.

You still can’t count the Kemp administration as a fan of the ACA.

Kemp spokesman Garrison Douglas in an email just this past week called the ACA “a one-size-fits all, broken government program.”

It currently serves more than 879,000 Georgians. The majority use healthcare.gov to sign up for coverage. Others go directly to insurance company websites or through middleman websites such as healthsherpa.com.

Eighteen mostly left-leaning states operate state-based exchanges like what Georgia is proposing. Those states also get funding to run their sites that the federal government otherwise would take to run healthcare.gov.

If the Biden administration OKs the plan, the Kemp administration aims to make the shift this year, enrolling people in plans this fall that would start coverage Jan. 1, according to state and federal documents.

Rebates are on their way to Georgia taxpayers

Some Georgians have already seen a boost to their bottom line, and others can expect their bank accounts to swell as their income tax rebates come in.

The last of the rebates should show up by July 1, the state Department of Revenue estimates.

The rebates go to Georgians who filed tax returns for the 2021 and 2022 tax years.

Those who were single filers will get up to $250.

For those who filed as the head of a household, that could be as much as $375.

Couples that filed jointly could see rebates top out at $500.

Funding for the rebates comes from the record $6.6 billion surplus the state posted for fiscal 2022, which ended June 30.

The state sent out similar rebates last year, shortly before Gov. Brian Kemp faced voters in the Republican primary.

Not every Georgian will receive a rebate, though.

If you didn’t owe state income taxes, you can’t get a rebate.

For example, Georgia law allows taxpayers ages 62 to 64 to exclude up to $35,000 of their retirement income — from pensions or investments — on their state return. Taxpayers who are 65 or older can exclude up to $65,000 per person on their returns. Social Security benefits also aren’t taxed.

The rebates aren’t the only surplus money many Georgians will see.

Under the midyear budget Kemp signed in March, homeowners will receive an extra one-time tax exemption on their homes, which the governor said should save those Georgians, on average, about $500.

The end may be near for such largesse.

Economic headwinds are expected to cut into the size of the current fiscal year’s surplus, possibly halting the rebates.

Revenue collections were off 3% in March, and state officials are predicting an even steeper dip in April. That’s largely a side effect from last year’s poor performances by the stock markets: Those big decreases mean a loss in state revenue (as much as $3 billion, the state’s fiscal economist predicted in January) from taxes on capital gains.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Insurance commissioner regains time for review of auto rates

Auto insurance rates soared in Georgia after the General Assembly voted in 2008 to let new rates take effect immediately once a company filed them with the insurance commissioner’s office.

Until then, companies needed prior approval from the commissioner, and insurers fought for years to change that because they said then-Commissioner John Oxendine’s decisions were sometimes made based on politics, not actuarially sound decisions.

Now the current commissioner, John King, has regained some of that authority under House Bill 221, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law this past week.

It will now take at least 60 days before rate hikes for most coverage can take effect, giving King’s office more time to review them.

That should make a difference for King, who could do little but blame the old system — known as the “file-and-use” law — and issue a consumer alert last year when Allstate Property & Casualty Co. filed an overall statewide increase in its auto rates of 25%.

King only had the authority to approve or disapprove policies offering state minimum coverage — about 20% of policies — while all other filings took effect immediately.

It didn’t matter that King pointed out at that time that Allstate had raised rates about 40% in 2022.

Allstate said it raised rates due to inflation, higher accident severity and frequency, and other factors, but only after lowering rates the year before.

Changing the law did not come easily.

Numerous lawmakers work in the insurance industry, including members of the House Insurance Committee.

King tried to assure lawmakers during this year’s legislative session that he wanted Georgia’s auto insurance market to remain strong.

“We’re committed to maintaining and sustaining the market. I don’t want any insurance company to leave this state,” he told the House Insurance Committee. “I want to be able to have the authority to negotiate with the companies about how they impact Georgia consumers.”

It doesn’t mean the end to rate increases. King has granted them in the past. Overall, his office said the average statewide premium increases in Georgia were 3.79% in 2021 and 7.93% last year.

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Squabble continues over cut to higher education system

The fight over a $66 million cut to the state’s higher education budget just isn’t going away.

The Senate backed that reduction to the University System of Georgia’s $3.1 billion budget as Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was engaged in a fight with Wellstar Health System over a proposal that would make it easier to build hospitals in rural counties. The proposal could have paved the way for a private hospital in Butts County that might have benefited Jones’ family but also would have competed with two facilities operated by Wellstar, which opposed the plan.

The $66 million represented just over half the $105 million that Gov. Brian Kemp and lawmakers had approved for a new electronic medical records system for the Medical College of Georgia, part of Augusta University. The expenditure was apparently an enticement urging Wellstar to partner with or even take over the financially struggling AU Health System.

University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue criticized the cut, saying the lost funding “will have a significant impact on institutions and the services that students and families depend on to advance their prosperity and help Georgia succeed.”

He also rejected a suggestion by Senate Appropriations Chairman Blake Tillery to fill the gap with some of the $504 million in “carry-forward” funding left over in college budgets.

Perdue said most of those reserves are concentrated at a few universities and can’t be moved to help smaller schools that are already seeing their budgets shrink as their enrollment declines.

Jones, who said he read Perdue’s criticism of the cuts in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution with “no shortage of disappointment,” responded by calling on the chancellor to tell legislative leaders what the University System’s schools are spending on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

He probably wasn’t asking just because he’s curious. DEI programs have become frequent targets of conservatives, who might smile favorably on Jones if, as predicted, he makes a run at the Republican nomination for governor in 2026.

The current governor then weighed in.

In an interview with Tim Bryant’s Mission TimPossible podcast, Kemp said the “cut is going to have to stand for now.”

But he’s also looking for a way to patch the hole in the University System budget.

“There’s other ways you can make adjustments to the budget to prepare us to be in a really good spot going into next year with the amended budget,” he said.

Tax on digital books, video games and music becomes law

In the near future, if you drop a few bucks to download the Beatles’ “Taxman,” you also will pay the taxman.

Starting Jan. 1, Georgians will have to pay a sales tax for downloading books, video games or music.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed the new tax into law this past week.

The state estimates the tax will bring in $80 million during the upcoming fiscal year. That will climb to $172 million the next year, and by fiscal 2028, the state expects to collect $200 million or more on the downloads.

The tax only applies to things that a buyer can keep. Streaming services such as Netflix will not be taxed, nor will other subscription-based products.

Internet-based taxes are still relatively new to Georgia.

For years, House members proposed taxes on digital products. State Rep. David Knight, a Republican from Griffin and a longtime member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the panel was concerned about local stores’ ability to compete with digital retailers. Those brick-and-mortar stores had to charge the state’s 4% sales tax and local sales taxes while the state was still trying to figure out how to handle online sales.

The first big move came in 2020, a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the economy, when the House and Senate passed legislation to collect more sales taxes on products bought through internet sites.

That tax quickly turned into a major source of revenue, playing a part in the state’s massive surpluses the past two fiscal years.

Welfare rules eased in effort to fight maternal mortality

To combat Georgia’s maternal mortality rate — among the worst in the nation — the state will make low-income pregnant women eligible for welfare.

Under House Bill 129, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law this past week, those women will be able to apply to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program as soon as July 1.

Currently, those women are only eligible for TANF, commonly known as welfare, once a child is born.

To qualify now for welfare, a child must be in a home with one parent, or if two parents are in the home, one must be physically or mentally incapacitated. School-age children must be immunized and have an acceptable school attendance record. There also are income requirements. For example, a family of three must have a gross income below $784 a month.

The loosening of restrictions on welfare marks a change for the state after spending more than a decade seeking ways to reduce enrollment in the program.

In June 2022, welfare benefits were granted to 6,190 Georgia households, according to data from the Division of Family and Children Services. That’s a decrease of nearly 81% since 2006, the earliest year for which DFCS data is available, when 33,302 households received welfare benefits.

Maternal mortality has long plagued Georgia, which currently ranks among the bottom 10 states, according to a report from the nonprofit KFF, formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Legislators have tried to tackle the problem in recent years.

Last year, the state extended the amount of time low-income Georgia mothers can receive benefits under Medicaid, the public health program that provides care to the poor and disabled, from two months to one year after the birth of a child.

Political expedience