Dear Governor Kemp:
The undersigned organizations, representing millions of patients and consumers in Georgia, urge you to protect access to care in the Medicaid program by pausing procedural terminations.
Medicaid provides quality, affordable healthcare coverage for low-income children, adults, pregnant individuals, people with disabilities, and seniors. Our organizations are committed to helping the people we represent navigate the unwinding of the continuous coverage requirements to ensure that those who are currently enrolled in Medicaid maintain their coverage if eligible or transition to other forms of quality, affordable care.
Our organizations are deeply troubled that more than 76,000 people in Georgia lost healthcare coverage in July due to the unwinding process, and that more than 173,000 people have lost coverage in Georgia since the state’s unwinding process began in May. We are particularly alarmed that more than 90% of individuals who lost coverage did so for procedural or paperwork reasons, not because individuals were found to be ineligible. We urge you to immediately pause procedural terminations and address issues that are causing patients to lose access to care.
It is even more important that Georgia pause procedural terminations due to the simultaneous rollout of the Georgia Pathways to Coverage Program. While some individuals losing Medicaid coverage should be eligible for coverage via the Pathways program, it appears that some people are not being prompted to apply, in addition to other issues with the Pathways enrollment process. Just 265 individuals have been approved for coverage through the program, which began July 1. These issues are further putting access to care at risk for many Georgians.
Quality and affordable healthcare is critical to millions of Georgia residents, especially those living with lung disease, cancer, and other chronic health conditions. We urge you to pause procedural terminations and take immediate action to address problems with the redetermination process to protect Georgians’ access to care.