Georgia Democrats reacted with a mix of fury and exasperation over the news Tuesday that top Republicans want to wait at least another year to adopt a broad Medicaid expansion measure.
Democratic officials always considered the election-year push to add hundreds of thousands of Georgians to the state’s Medicaid rolls a longshot given entrenched opposition from Gov. Brian Kemp and other GOP leaders.
But they hoped the tide of other Republican-led states that have embraced an expansion, such as South Dakota, would help their case. Meanwhile, Kemp’s Georgia Pathways program, a Medicaid waiver plan that ties Medicaid eligibility to work or academic requirements, attracted just 3,000 enrollees in its first seven months of existence.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
“States including Mississippi have announced they’ll be expanding Medicaid,” said state Rep. Ruwa Romman, D-Duluth. “I don’t understand why we haven’t and instead are letting people suffer unnecessarily.”
House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, declared the governor’s policy a “failed pathway to a parking lot.”
State Rep. Scott Holcomb, lamented the “significant missed opportunity” to pass an Arkansas-style program. Arkansas purchases private insurance through the federal government’s health care insurance exchange, Healthcare.gov, for Medicaid-eligible residents.
“Full expansion would dramatically reduce the number of uninsured — and it would cost hundreds of millions less than the cost of Pathways,” said Holcomb, a DeKalb Democrat.
Others took a more guarded approach by highlighting the incentives tucked into sweeping federal packages aimed at sweetening the pot for Georgia. The state is one of 10 that has declined to expand its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.
“After nearly 15 years, maybe one more year will do the trick,” said state Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs. “There’s a big hug from Democrats waiting for Republicans once they’re finally ready. A big hug, a 9-to-1 federal dollar match — and a $1.2 billion signing bonus.”
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Credit: Casey Sykes
Credit: Casey Sykes
UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Legislative Day 24
- 8 a.m.: Committee meetings begin.
- 10 a.m.: The House gavels in.
- 10 a.m.: The Senate convenes.
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Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
IN THE HOPPER. State lawmakers were busy Tuesday after a brief President’s Day break. Here’s what you missed:
- New House Rules Committee Chairman Butch Parrish, R-Swainsboro, dropped the House’s highly anticipated bill to overhaul rural hospital regulations. House Bill 1339 is the result of a Parrish-led study committee that looked at the pluses and minuses of Georgia’s “certificate of need” regulations. The AJC’s Michelle Baruchman writes the bill includes a new study committee for Medicaid expansion, along with requirements for new rural psychiatric care and medical residencies.
- The wallet was open at the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, which approved a midyear budget with $5 billion in new spending. James Salzer reports the bill will underwrite a new medical school in Athens, along with new roads, rural airports, local water and sewer projects, and rural economic development programs.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
- State Rep. Lauren Daniel, R-Locust Grove, who can usually be found on the House floor with her infant son in a baby carrier, introduced HB 1284 to quadruple fines for motorists passing a school bus. The bill is named after eight-year-old Adalynn Pierce of Henry County who was killed by a passing driver as she was crossing the road to get onto her school bus.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
GOING HOME. State Rep. Penny Houston announced Tuesday that she’ll retire at the end of the year after 26 years in the House.
“It is time to go home,” she told her House colleagues Tuesday with a smile. “I’m not planning on dying anytime soon, but I want to die in South Georgia.”
Her move creates an open seat, which currently includes Berrien County and portions of Tift and Cook counties. With her retirement, the Republican from Nashville will also open up the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Economic Development, which oversees the budgets for the Georgia Ports Authority, the Georgia World Congress Center, and several state agencies.
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
LISTEN UP. Insurance Commissioner John King, a Republican, joined the “Politically Georgia” radio show Tuesday to talk about being the first Hispanic elected statewide in Georgia, along with border security and the 2024 presidential contest.
Then attorney Charlie Bailey, who was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2022, weighed in on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ testimony last week.
Today, the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu discusses the legislative session as Crossover Day nears, and Meg Kinnard of the Associated Press previews this weekend’s GOP primary in South Carolina.
Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And listen to Wednesday’s show live at 10 a.m. on WABE 90.1 FM, at AJC.com and at WABE.org.
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GEORGIA 2020. Gov. Brian Kemp told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday that he has spoken to investigators with the Washington, D.C.-based special counsel prosecuting former President Donald Trump on charges of trying to subvert the 2020 election.
Kemp said he talked with Jack Smith’s office months ago about the same issues that he was questioned about in 2022 by the Fulton County special grand jury. “I basically told them … that I follow the law and the Constitution and answered all their questions truthfully,” he said.
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CRUNCHTIME IN CAROLINA. The South Carolina GOP primary is Saturday, and longshot hopeful Nikki Haley continues to tour her home state in seek of support for her bid against former President Donald Trump. Your insiders will spend time with Haley this week, including at a rally later today in North Augusta.
A recent poll commissioned by political news website TheHill.com has Haley trailing Trump by 31 points in a state where voters elected her governor twice.
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Credit: AP
Credit: AP
CASH MONEY. A host at a winery that Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis visited in 2023 has corroborated her testimony that she paid in cash for portions of trips taken with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
CNN tracked down Stan Brody, who was serving as the estate ambassador at Acumen Wines in Napa Valley the day Willis and Wade visited. Brody told the network that he remembered Willis paying the bill, which was several hundred dollars, using cash because such transactions are rare.
“I ran(g) up the thing and I showed her. I was expecting a credit card quite frankly,” Brody told CNN on Monday. “And she says I’ll pay cash. And so that was that. So then I just put the cash in, made change for her and she was very generous to me.”
Brody said he hasn’t been contacted by Willis’ attorneys nor defense attorneys seeking to have her disqualified from the case she brought against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
The issue of whether Willis regularly paid expenses while traveling in cash became a key theme of defense attorneys’ questions for her during an explosive hearing last week.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden campaigns in California.
- The House and Senate are in recess all week.
- The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on a case regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to establish national air quality standards and on a second case dealing with copyright laws for music.
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Credit: Courtesy image
Credit: Courtesy image
BEHIND SCHEDULE. State officials confirmed Tuesday what visitors to the Savannah Convention Center have suspected for months now — that the $270 million expansion of the facility is nowhere near completion.
State taxpayers are funding the project, which will double the 25-year-old facility’s capacity and has sparked a crush of bookings from convention planners attracted to Savannah’s charms. The original timeline called for a January opening for conventions with full completion this spring, but delays pushed that date to May.
On Tuesday, the state’s financing arm, the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission, announced the project would not meet the May deadline. The agency declined to issue a new target completion date but a spokesman acknowledged convention center leaders are working with clients booked for Savannah conventions in the third and fourth quarters of 2024 to find alternative arrangements.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. We’re back from break — did you miss us? To make up for it, we bring you Pollywog Jensen, the dog named after a baby frog who is too cute not to kiss in our humble opinions.
Although Pollywog is indeed fond of water, the 1½-year-old vizsla got her name from her person, John Jensen, who is a herpetologist in Monticello. To save you the Google search, that’s someone who studies reptiles and amphibians. Pollywog is also from a proud Dog of the Day family, since her sister, Jasmine, was previously featured in this newsletter.
You’re no frog to us, Pollywog. You’re our Dog of the Day!
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and location, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com, and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
