AJC: Medicaid Cuts Could Be Disastrous for Georgia

“Health care calamity” and a state budget “in jeopardy” awaits Georgia if Medicaid cuts in Trump-backed Republican budget plan pass

Georgia faces potentially hundreds of thousands of newly uninsured Georgians and a looming state budget crisis if the Trump-backed Republican budget plan is enacted into law. 

One provision included in the bill would make deep cuts to Medicaid — potentially disastrous news for many of the nearly 800,000 low-income Georgians who are insured through the Affordable Care Act and could end up uninsured. If enacted, the Trump-backed Republican budget could also result in putting “enormous pressure” on Georgia’s state budget. 

Georgia Republicans, including Buddy Carter, Mike Collins, and Rich McCormick, have continuously backed the Trump-backed budget’s deep Medicaid cuts.

Read the reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution below:

AJC: Medicaid cuts could be disastrous for state, health care advocates say
Proposed cuts would leave more people in Georgia without access to health care.
Michelle Baruchman; May 19, 2025

KEY POINTS FROM THE ARTICLE:

• Georgia would face health care calamity and the state’s budget could be in jeopardy if congressional Republicans press forward on their budget proposal, which calls for cuts to Medicaid programs, health care advocates said Monday.

• “These reforms would put significant stress on Georgia’s state budget, threaten access to care and mental health services for Georgians, and likely increase our already high rate of uninsured [people]” said Natalie Crawford, the executive director of Georgia First, a nonprofit in support of Medicaid.

• Standing outside the Georgia Capitol, Crawford and members of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network said the proposed cuts would leave more people in Georgia without access to health care. More uninsured Georgians means businesses would pay more to insure their employees, property taxes could go up and the state would have a less-productive workforce, she said.

• The proposed budget advanced out of the U.S. House Budget Committee Sunday evening. 

• Among the provisions in the legislation, Republican lawmakers want to allow a federal tax credit to sunset that subsidizes the cost of insurance for Georgians who are purchasing coverage on the open state marketplace.

• Nearly 800,000 low-income Georgians receive private insurance through the health care exchange created through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

• “If Congress chooses to let those tax credits expire, enormous pressure would be put on our state budget, and many of those 800,000 Georgians will become uninsured,” she said.

• Georgia lawmakers, she said, should also maximize “every existing opportunity” to provide residents with health care. That includes expanding Medicaid to allow those earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level — which is about $21,000 for an individual in 2025 — to qualify for the program.

• The “big, beautiful bill” President Donald Trump has promised would eliminate an added 5% incentive given to the states by the federal government during the pandemic but preserves a 90% federal match for states that expanded Medicaid.

• It would also institute work requirements for Medicaid recipients. However, in the bill’s current form, those requirements don’t go into effect until 2029.

• Georgia pioneered work requirements two years ago, but the program has seen low enrollment and high administrative costs. If work requirements are instituted nationwide, federal budget estimators say at least 7.7 million Americans would lose health insurance.

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