Nearly 2,000 Fannin County children are in danger of losing their PeachCare insurance as early as next month if they are not re-enrolled.
Another 1,000-plus residents could see their Medicaid benefits disappear.
All are among the almost three million Georgians whose government funded insurance, financed with taxpayer dollars, is at risk due to the Omnibus Appropriations Bill passed by the U.S. Congress in December 2022.
The bill returns previous enrollment requirements that existed before COVID-19 to the PeachCare and Medicaid programs. Recipients must once again qualify annually for the benefits.
Extra funding for the programs has also been taken away by Congress.
Georgia receives the bulk of its PeachCare money through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides low-cost health coverage to children in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
Last week, Steven Miracle, chief executive officer for Georgia Mountains Health, explained the situation.
When COVID-19 struck, Miracle said the federal government made the decision to make sure people did not lose their government supported health insurance. Lawmakers told the states, “You are required to continue coverage,” Miracle said.
Annual re-enrollment requirements were dropped, new enrollments had to be accepted, and the federal government provided extra money to states to fund the federally subsidized programs.
As a result, PeachCare and Medicaid recipients have not had to re-enroll for the last two years.
Now, with the passage of the Omnibus bill, the extra money is gone and annual re-enrollments are back in place, Miracle said.
Everyone now enrolled faces their annual re-enrollment deadlines that existed before the COVID-19 changes, Miracle said.
The first Georgians to be affected will be those who have May re-enrollment anniversaries. The return to annual re-enrollments will continue for 14 months, but Miracle urges, “don’t wait until the deadline.”
“There is no reason for children to be uninsured in Georgia, and yet we have children that were uninsured even before this happened,” Miracle said.
“Even people who are employed can have PeachCare coverage for children under certain circumstances,” he said.
Re-enrolling, or enrolling for PeachCare and Medicaid, can be done on the Georgia Gateway at gateway.ga.gov/access.
Georgia contracts with four insurers to provide PeachCare coverage. Qualified applicants will choose their provider on the website.
Miracle encourages anyone needing help with enrollment or re-enrollment to contact their provider, which can include Georgia Mountains Health.
He warns the threat of losing coverage is serious.
A mother brought her child to the Georgia Mountains Health (GMH) office in Chatsworth recently thinking the child was covered, only to find out coverage did not exist.
In this case, GMH staff members were able to prove to the government the lapse in coverage was due to a “bureaucratic glitch,” coverage was restored and the problem solved.
“But the situation showed the threat of losing coverage is real,” Miracle said.