Gov. Brian Kemp has named a former top aide to head up a new commission to study health care access and quality across the state.
Caylee Noggle, the president and CEO of the Georgia Hospital Association, will serve as chairperson of Georgia’s Comprehensive Health Coverage Commission.
Noggle will lead a panel of eight other health policy experts in evaluating health care assistance programs for Georgia’s low-income and uninsured residents, including whether to expand the state’s Medicaid program. Kemp has long opposed full expansion of Medicaid.
There have been numerous ideas and encouraging conversations about improving health care delivery for all Georgians in recent years, and this commission serves as another opportunity to take a closer look at options, Noggle said.
Noggle has previously served as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health and worked in Kemp’s administration as deputy chief of staff.
Legislative appointees to the panel will be made in the coming weeks.
The group was born out of House Bill 1339, signed into law in April, that loosened rules hospitals must follow to open new facilities in the state — a process known as certificate of need. Although Democrats in Georgia had pushed for the state to expand Medicaid, the government-funded health care program for low-income children and some low-income adults, the effort failed.
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