Georgia's child Medicaid enrollments are hitting the chopping block at an alarming rate, outpacing adult disenrollments in what a recent Urban Institute report describes as a surge in terminations across a dozen states, this according to a study based on data through November 2023. The Peach State has axed coverage for a number of children exceeding 100% of original projections, a move raising eyebrows about potential increases in health disparities.
Gone are the days of federally-mandated grace during the pandemic when states were prohibited from booting anyone off Medicaid, now every individual on Medicaid is back to square one having to prove they still fit the bill for coverage, nearly 70% of these are kids in a state where about 3.7 million people are covered by Medicaid, but the Georgia Department of Community Health is pushing back on the report's findings claiming that, in fact, the rate of children losing coverage has not overtaken that of adults; asserting that children's numbers have been steady even through the contentious Medicaid “unwinding," Fiona Roberts, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Community Health, told WABE.
Contrary to the state's defense, the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families weighs in with a troubling statistic that Georgia's child Medicaid enrollment has plummeted by at least 20 percent, yet statewide numbers are murky as they don't typically distinguish between the drop in adults versus kids' coverage. Following the redeterminations, Georgia has already pulled the rug out from under 539,893 individuals for procedural slip-ups, like missing deadlines or botching paperwork, compounding the problem further is the fact that another 99,880 were tossed out as ineligible and told to seek health insurance elsewhere.
State data points to private marketplace plans as a go-to for those kicked off Medicaid yet this includes Georgia Access and Pathways to Coverage, initiatives fraught with their own labyrinthine requirements, such as the stipulation mandating adults to complete 80 hours a month of work, education, or volunteering activities. Amid the tumult, state officials have been on a campaign to reach out to Medicaid members, with Ellen Brown, spokesperson for the Department of Human Services asserting, “Since summer 2022, we have been actively focused on reaching as many Georgia Medicaid members as possible especially children to ensure they are prepared to go through the redetermination process," yet this does not seem to be hitting the mark, Deanna Williams, an enrollment assister at Georgians for a Healthy Future, told WABE, voicing that confusion still reigns supreme as many on Medicaid seem uninformed or uncertain about the whole redetermination rigmarole.
