Task force proposing two new centers to boost Georgia health care

Acting on the first day of the 2018 Georgia General Assembly session, a task force of state lawmakers approved recommendations Monday to create two centers that its leaders say will develop data and solutions to improve health care in Georgia. Led by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, the Georgia Health Care Reform Task Force proposed a Health Coordination…

Georgia’s Top 10 health care stories in 2017

1.      The Affordable Care Act rode a political roller coaster. The law also known as Obamacare survived multiple attempts to repeal it in Congress. But it did not come out unscathed. The White House cut marketing and enrollment time in the ACA exchanges, and halted cost-sharing payments to health insurers selling exchange policies. Then, in late December,…

Stunning increase in enrollment for Georgia’s insurance exchange

Georgia’s insurance exchange showed an astonishing surge in the last scheduled week of Open Enrollment, roughly doubling the total enrolled to 482,904. That’s very close to the 493,880 in Georgia who signed up for coverage for the current year. Nationally, the enrollment figures in the 39 states (including Georgia) that use the federally run exchange…

Major pillar of ACA receives death blow from lawmakers

Congressional attempts to “repeal and replace’’ the Affordable Care Act met with failure after failure this year. But early Wednesday, Senate Republicans passed a bill that would abolish a central tenet of the ACA: the individual mandate for Americans to have health coverage or face a tax penalty. The mandate repeal is part of a massive…

Exchange enrollment in state likely to fall short of previous total

Georgia’s ACA exchange enrollment for 2018 may fall far short of the current year’s totals, new federal figures show. Through last week, 246,270 have signed up for coverage in the state exchange. This is the last week for sign-ups. There’s typically high enrollment activity in the final week of Open Enrollment for the exchange. But…

When you like your health plan . . .  but it’s no longer available

Kathy Brooke of Smyrna is facing a major hassle at a time in her life when she wants fewer problems, not more. The recently diagnosed cancer patient is going to have to get a new doctor at the start of the new year. Many consumers — whether with work-based coverage or government insurance — face…

Holiday week not a bustling time for insurance exchanges

Enrollment on the health insurance exchanges appeared to slow during Thanksgiving week in Georgia and nationally, federal figures show. After 119,968 Georgians enrolled for 2018 coverage in the first three weeks of sign-ups, just 26,931 picked a health plan last week. The pace of enrollment on the insurance exchanges was lower nationally as well, with…

Feds announce exchange sign-up total for Georgia

Almost 120,000 Georgians have signed up for 2018 coverage in the state insurance exchange, federal officials announced Wednesday. The announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave the first state-by-state breakdown of sign-ups over three weeks of enrollment in the 39 states that use the federal healthcare.gov exchanges. Nationally, about 800,000 consumers enrolled last week…

We need to move from chaos to health security

These are extremely uncertain times. The partisan and political divides, more akin to tribalism than ideological debates, have frozen our political leadership in a perpetual state of dysfunction. Uncertainty and failure to ensure access to health care have consequences, often life-and-death consequences, for real people. At the national level, despite years of “repeal and replace”…

Commentary: What uninsured Georgians really need

Recent congressional action shows health care continues to percolate as a top political issue. The latest development involves an addition to Senate Republicans’ tax legislation. The added provision would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance or pay a tax penalty. But Dr. Harry Heiman, a faculty member at Georgia…