Health Insurance Forum

Georgia impending health reform delicately

by mahir on 03/05/10 at 12:04 pm

Georgia is approaching the new health care reform law gingerly — with skepticism and even downright opposition. A combination of responses by Georgia officials to the new law ranging from opposition to some measures, declining to implement another and a general hesitancy to quickly move ahead have raised concerns that implementing reforms here could face a rocky road.

Several aspects of the sweeping health care changes will go into effect by early next year, but Georgia officials say the state agencies are largely still analyzing the implications of the new law. “Sadly it seems politics is getting in the way,” said Timothy Sweeney, a senior health care analyst for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “There’s not a lot of action I am aware of.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine has told the federal government that his office will not set up such a pool, which is designed to help people with pre-existing medical conditions, obtain affordable health insurance. Analysts say they see early signs that Georgia government, controlled by a Republican governor and a Republican-dominated statehouse, may be resistant to implementing health care measures pressed by a Democrat president.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has asked the states to decide by Friday whether they will set up high-risk insurance pools. Oxendine said he does not believe that the $5 billion in federal money set aside to help people pay their premiums will last long and he worries that the state will get stuck footing the bill. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said that the federal government will set up the program in those states that decline to do it on their own.