Athens For Everyone presses case for Medicaid expansion

In a prelude to what the group says will be an all-out effort in the upcoming state legislative session, members of the local activist organization Athens For Everyone showed up for a recent pre-legislative meeting of Athens-Clarke County's mayor and commission and the five members of the state legislative delegation to press for Medicaid expansion in Georgia.

While they didn't have a place on the agenda for last week's pre-legislative meeting - an annual session in which Athens-Clarke officials ask for state legislative assistance on a broad range of issues - the handful of Athens For Everyone representatives who came to the City Hall meeting held up cards reading "600 Georgians will die in 2016 without Medicaid expansion," and "7,998+ Athenians in Medicaid gap" as Commissioner Jared Bailey made a case for the expansion.

Following the session, Athens For Everyone members buttonholed the Republican members of the legislative delegation to argue further for Medicaid expansion.

Under terms of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in March of 2010, federal funds can be used in individual states to cover expanded eligibility for Medicaid, an assistance program helping many people who can't afford medical care to cover all or part of their medical bills. Under the law, the federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion until 2017, with that support dropping to 95 percent in 2017 and to 90 percent after 2020, with states having to pick up the shortfalls after 2017.

But in a 2012 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the federal government could not withhold all Medicaid funding from states that chose not to expand their Medicaid programs, effectively giving states the opportunity to opt out of expanding Medicaid. Thus far, Georgia has been among the states opting out of the expansion, with officials citing concerns about the funding gap that would have to be made up with state funds after 2017.

At last week's pre-legislative session, Bailey argued, in part, that expanding Medicaid in Georgia could help stem the tide of rural hospitals closing around the state, and went on to claim that expanding Medicaid would create thousands of jobs in the state.

Commissioner Melissa Link also expressed her support for Medicaid expansion, arguing the federal funds are coming from taxpayers across the nation, including in Georgia.

"We're already paying for this through our federal taxes," Link said, before going on to claim that "people are dying" because of Georgia's refusal to expand Medicaid.

The claim that 600 Georgians will die in 2016 without Medicaid expansion, referenced by the Athens For Everyone signs at the pre-legislative session, has been used by the Moral Monday movement at the state level in making the case for Medicaid expansion. The "Medicaid gap" noted in the signs displayed at last week's meeting is a reference to people whose incomes are above Medicaid eligibility limits but who don't qualify for tax credits in connection with obtaining insurance under terms of the Affordable Care Act.

At last week's pre-legislative session, commissioners expressed wide agreement with the expansion of Medicaid in Georgia, but only one member of the legislative delegation - Spencer Frye of Athens, the lone Democrat in the delegation - expressed agreement with that goal.

The state legislature is set to convene on Jan. 11 for its 2016 session.