Here’s a fun fact for you: birth control helps people prevent unplanned pregnancies. Shocking right? Early Thursday morning, the Senate took the first steps to repeal the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. One of the amazing benefits of the ACA, has been no-copay birth control. Birth control comes in a lot of forms: hormonal… [Read More]
Georgia’s health care strategy: wait and see while the hot mess unfolds
Health care is going to be a hot mess come the new year. Unfortunately, women, transgender folks, people of color and rural communities are going to be the first to feel the pinch of many impending changes. And the potential “solutions” from Republicans at both a state and national level have not been promising. Republicans in… [Read More]
New federal funding means it’s time to expand Medicaid in Georgia
Georgia Republicans decided not to expand Medicaid under the pretense that Georgia couldn’t afford it. However, with the increase in federal funding for states adopting the next round of expanded Medicaid, Georgia can’t afford not to adopt it. The Macon Telegraph editorialized, “When Gov. Nathan Deal first declared the state wouldn’t participate in the ACA… [Read More]
Louisiana expands Medicaid, will GA keep saying no?
Georgia’s efforts to block Medicaid expansion just got a little bit harder, following the successful expansion of Medicaid in Louisiana this summer. Conservative leadership in this state has cited cost and concerns that the federal government will back out of its commitment to fund 90 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion. This would, the argument goes, leave… [Read More]
Are Republicans Changing Their Tune on Medicaid?
The day we thought would never come might actually happen. Georgia’s Republican legislators are mulling over the idea of taking federal money to insure the hundreds of thousands of Georgians they left high and dry when they decided not to expand Medicaid. State Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), the same woman who wants to fund fake women’s… [Read More]
No surprises in governor’s speech
Gov. Deal’s State of the State address Wednesday delivered what we’ve come to expect from this Governor’s office: more of the same. Just like every year before, Gov. Deal used his annual speech to showcase a Georgia that works for Gov. Deal and his buddies, but nobody else.
Supreme Court upholds health care. Deal still blocks insurance for 600,000 Georgians.
The U.S. Supreme Court just upheld a key component of the Affordable Care Act – guaranteeing the law will be here to provide affordable insurance for decades to come. While this is good news for Georgia, Gov. Deal’s Medicaid blockade continues to drag our state down. While many Georgians are benefiting from increased access to… [Read More]
Lawmaker attacks GA hospitals; calls them ‘crack addicts’
Think for a second about your local hospital and the nurses and doctors who provide medical care for you when you’re sick. What comes to mind? For one Georgia lawmaker, he thinks, “They are like addicts on crack.” Seriously. State Rep. Jason Spencer believes our hospitals are like crack addicts because the Georgia Hospital Association would… [Read More]
Georgia Insurance Commissioner: It’s your fault.
Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens wants anyone suffering from diabetes, asthma, cancer, genetic disorders, and other pre-existing medical conditions to know something: it’s your fault. His view of pre-existing conditions was captured on video while he spoke to the Republican Women’s Club in Evans: “But say you’re going along and you have a wreck. And… [Read More]
Albany doctor: Nathan Deal ‘out of touch’ on health care
Dr. Chuck Mendenhall has challenged Gov. Nathan Deal to spend a day in his shoes. “I’d like to make a standing offer to have the governor spend a day with me in the clinic here. Let’s see what he thinks after he sees the things that I see in a day.” Dr. Mendenhall, a respected… [Read More]