ATLANTA – America’s three-year experiment with an approximation of European-style universal health care will come to an end May 11 when the federal public health emergency brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic expires.
A series of health-care and insurance-coverage provisions that were put in place to deal with the pandemic are about to go away, which experts in the field say will make it just as hard to access care for many as it was before coronavirus struck Georgia and the nation.
“As we transition into the new normal, we are returning mostly to our fragmented health system as we knew it,” said Jen Kates, director of global health at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
One casualty of that “new normal” will be an immediate end to free at-home COVID tests for most Georgians. Those enrolled in Medicaid will continue to get free tests but only until September. The good news on that front is that COVID vaccines will continue to be free for Medicaid enrollees and the uninsured under a $1 billion Biden administration program.
Continuing to offer free vaccines to that group makes sense because low-income Georgians on Medicaid or without insurance coverage of any sort tend to work in jobs where the risk of exposure to COVID is greater than to others who can work from home, said Leah Chan, senior health policy analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, an Atlanta-based nonprofit.
“It’s important keeping it in place for a longer period of time,” she said.
Telehealth services took off during the pandemic, as patients and physicians sought to reduce their exposure to COVID-19. Health-care providers stepped up their offerings of telehealth, and insurance companies proved more willing to cover those services.
While the end of the public health emergency will limit coverage of some telehealth services, Chan said states are being given flexibility to continue some telehealth services for Medicaid enrollees. For example, Georgia plans to launch a pilot project involving remote fetal monitoring, she said.
“The pandemic was an experiment in how [telehealth] works and a lesson going forward,” she said.
Georgia hospitals received an influx of emergency federal funding during the pandemic. At the same time, the federal government stopped the periodic checking of the Medicaid rolls to determine which enrollees were still eligible for coverage.
With the so-called “unwinding” process that began last month separately from the end of the public health emergency, the feds are resuming those eligibility checks. As a result, an estimated 545,000 Georgians will lose Medicaid or PeachCare for Kids coverage, according to the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts.
“[Hospitals] are facing not only the end of COVID-related funds but also the Medicaid unwinding, which will increase the level of uncompensated care,” Chan said.
Georgia hospitals are getting some help to offset those funding losses through a little-known federal program launched in 2016 that provides “directed payments” to states that hire private managed-care companies to deliver health care to Medicaid enrollees.
Public hospitals in Georgia received $188.3 million during the last fiscal year through the directed payment program, according to the state Department of Community Health.
But Chan said the ultimate solution lies in Georgia expanding Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act to cover those with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level. Forty states have taken that step, but Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and GOP legislative leaders oppose it, citing the cost.
Chan said the federal government would cover 90 cents for every $1 spent to expand Medicaid. Also, the feds are offering a bonus payment to states that decide to expand coverage, she said.
“It makes good economic sense to take advantage of the federal dollars being offered,” she said.
Kemp is taking a different approach. The governor’s more limited expansion of Medicaid, the Georgia Pathways program, is due to launch July 1.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s 2024 presidential primaries will place next March 12, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Thursday.
“Georgia is a bellwether state,” Raffensperger said during a news conference at the state Capitol, acknowledging the Peach State’s relatively new status as one of a handful of swing states in national politics. “If you can win in Georgia, you will win nationally.”
In announcing the mid-March date, Raffensperger – a Republican – rejected a recommendation by the Democratic National Committee late last year that Georgia’s presidential primaries be moved up to February, which would have made Georgia the fourth state to vote.
Democrats argued an early primary date in Georgia would have added to the diversity of the electorate during the early primaries. Iowa and New Hampshire, currently the first states to hold party caucuses or primaries, are majority white.
Emory University finance professor Thomas More Smith released a study in February that showed early primaries in Georgia could generate nearly $220 million in economic impact.
“An earlier primary would give Georgia voters and national candidates the opportunity to interact sooner – making our state the proving ground for candidates of either party – and put Georgia voters and leaders in a position to drive the national discussion on issues and industries important to our state,” said U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
But Raffensperger said holding the Georgia primaries in mid-March, a week after multiple states vote on Super Tuesday – would work to Georgia’s advantage both politically and economically.
“We believe a March 12 date maximizes Georgia’s influence and has the greatest economic impact,” he said.
Two weeks of early voting will take place prior to the primaries.
Democrat Joe Biden easily won the party’s Georgia primary in 2020 with 75% of the vote, building on momentum from his first primary win in South Carolina. Biden then went on to become the first Democrat to carry Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 when he narrowly defeated Republican President Donald Trump to win the state’s 16 electoral votes.
As an incumbent, Trump was unopposed in the 2020 Georgia GOP primary.
ATLANTA – Who knew a kid in Georgia is supposed to have a permit to set up a lemonade stand at the end of their driveway?
That won’t be the case come July 1, however, thanks to the General Assembly.
Gov. Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 55 on Wednesday, a bipartisan measure that will allow Georgians under age 18 to sell non-consumable goods, pre-packaged food items and non-alcoholic beverages on private property without requiring a permit or license or paying a tax. The one caveat is the business must earn no more than $5,000 in a calendar year.
“The Lemonade Stand Act represents a bipartisan effort to support youth education, empowerment and entrepreneurship,” said state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, the bill’s chief sponsor.
“Further, the Lemonade Stand Act supports parents by ensuring they are not in a position of having to choose between the hassle and cost of permits, licenses and taxes, looking the other way, or just denying their children the opportunity to engage in this long-standing American tradition.”
An often divided General Assembly overwhelmingly approved such a feel-good measure. The bill’s cosponsors included Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, and Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain.
Deion Patterson (Photo courtesy of Atlanta Police Department)
ATLANTA – A gunman accused of killing one woman and wounding four others in a mass shooting in Midtown Atlanta early Wednesday afternoon was arrested in Cobb County Wednesday night, the Marietta Daily Journal reported.
Deion Patterson, 24, was captured by officers with the Cobb County Police Department without incident at a condominium complex near Truist Park. A vehicle Patterson allegedly carjacked near the scene of the shootings was recovered earlier inside a parking garage at The Battery Atlanta adjacent to the stadium.
Patterson, who served five years in the U.S. Coast Guard before being discharged in January, is charged with pulling out a handgun and opening fire inside an 11th-floor waiting room at a Northside Hospital facility on West Peachtree Street. He had gone to the medical center for an appointment.
Patterson fled immediately after the shootings and carjacked a vehicle near the intersection of 14th and Williams streets, Atlanta police said. Atlanta police and other law enforcement agencies from the region, unaware that Patterson had left the Midtown area, cordoned off several blocks and enforced a shelter-in-place order for several hours that kept workers at office buildings in the area, guests and employees of nearby hotels and restaurants, and school students from leaving.
The woman who was killed was identified as 39-year-old Amy St. Pierre of Atlanta, an employee of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The other four women was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital. Three underwent surgery and were listed in critical condition, Atlanta’s WANF-TV reported.
Patterson’s mother accompanied him to the appointment Wednesday and was not injured. She then cooperated with police to try to locate her son.
Patterson lived in Jonesboro until recently, according to police. He has an arrest record going back to 2015, when he was charged with possession of marijuana in Henry County.
He was arrested in Clayton in 2017 and charged with driving under the influence, leaving the scene of an accident, and improper lane change. Those charges were dropped later in the year.
ATLANTA – One person was killed and four wounded in Midtown Atlanta Wednesday afternoon when a gunman opened fire inside a medical facility waiting room.
The suspect, identified by police as Deion Patterson, 24, was at a medical center on West Peachtree Street operated by Northside Hospital with his mother when he pulled out a gun and began firing.
A 39-year-woman died at the scene, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told reporters at a news conference. The four wounded also were women, ages 71, 56, 39, and 25, Schierbaum said.
The wounded women were transported to Grady Memorial Hospital, where three are listed in critical condition, said Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer for Grady Health System.
Jansen said Grady’s doctors and nurses routinely train to handle mass shootings.
“We were completely prepared for it,” he said. “We had all the staff we needed.”
Schierbaum said Patterson left the building immediately after the shootings, and police believed he carjacked a nearby vehicle. The vehicle was recovered in Cobb County. His mother was uninjured and has been cooperating with police, the chief said.
“Law enforcement agencies across this city are working together to bring this suspect in and make sure we are all safe,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.
Police released a driver’s license photo of Patterson to help members of the public identify him. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the suspect’s capture.
“We’re dealing with someone who is armed and dangerous,” Dickens said. “If you see him, do not approach. Call 911.”
With police unsure of Patterson’s whereabouts after the shootings, workers in Midtown office buildings, nearby guests and employees of hotels and restaurants, and school students sheltered in place for several hours. Those sheltering included two young children of U.S. Sen Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
Warnock took to the Senate floor after the shootings to plead for legislation to curb what has become an epidemic of gun violence in America.
“We act as if this is routine. We behave as if this is normal,” Warnock said. “It is not normal. It is not right for us to live in a nation where nobody is safe no matter where we are.”
