While the number of Georgia residents without health
insurance declined last year, Georgia remains one of only five states with
uninsured rates above 12.0 percent.
States with Highest Uninsured Rates: 2015
In 2015, 13.9 percent of the state’s population was
uninsured, which translated to more than 1.3 million residents.
“All Georgians and Georgia businesses are affected by
this uninsured burden through higher health insurance premiums and the
corresponding cost shift on employer-sponsored health insurance,’’ in a
statement attributed to Earl Rogers, who serves as president of the Georgia
Hospital Association.
Nationally, the uninsured rate is 9.4 percent with
Massachusetts recording the lowest uninsured rate at 2.8 percent, as measured by the American Community Survey (ACS), according to a new report from the Census Bureau.
Uninsured Rates by State: "Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015"
If there was any good news in the report, the percentage
of uninsured Georgians has decreased over the past years. In 2013, 18.8 percent
of Georgians were uninsured, and in 2014, that number dropped to 15.8 percent.
The drop can be attributed to more individuals receiving
insurance through Healthcare.gov under
the Affordable Care Act, and an aging population of people 65 and older who
fall under the provisions of Medicare, the government’s other major health insurance
program.
State continues to
resist Medicaid expansion
Georgia remains one of 19 states that have chosen not to
expand Medicaid to low-income families, although the federal government has
promised to pick up all of the costs of Medicaid expansion.
The failure to insure the population is putting strains
on hospitals in Georgia, especially in rural areas, where emergency rooms are
required to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Without any form of health insurance, increasing numbers
of residents are also finding their way to emergency rooms for non-emergencies,
such as the flu, and then are unable to pay their bills.
The lack of an insured population also hurts employers.
Employers not providing health insurance must put up with sick employees at
their establishments who cannot afford to miss work or seek medical assistance.
Employers who do provide health insurance pay higher
premiums to subsidize the losses suffered by hospitals that are required to
treat uninsured patients.
When hospitals are unable to collect payments from
patients, they then have to increase charges to other paying patients to make
up for the losses suffered from uninsured patients. That results in higher
health care costs to insurers and higher premiums to those with health
insurance.
Georgia Chamber of
Commerce prepares options to cover the uninsured
The health care task force, created by the Georgia
Chamber of Commerce, has developed options that they will bring next year to
the Georgia General Assembly.
All three options include a requirement that individuals
receiving health insurance must pay at least part of the premium costs, and all
three options would require a waiver from the federal government because they
differ from the standard Medicaid expansion.
Chris Clark, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of
Commerce, said in a statement that “any of these plans would serve as a
game-ready playbook for lawmakers seeking a fiscally responsible and sustainable
path to cover Georgia’s uninsured, revitalize a rural health care network in
crisis and undergird our safety net hospitals. That’s important not just to the
health of our families but also to the health of our economy, because no good
jobs are going to come to a region that lacks access to quality health care.”
More information about the Chamber's work regarding health care in Georgia is available here.
