Georgia Helped Inspire the Medicaid Work Rules. Its Own Rules Could Soon End.

After years of searching for affordable health insurance, Trey Wright discovered Georgia Pathways to Coverage. The state’s limited Medicaid expansion program allowed the 27-year-old living in the rural city of Jesup in southeastern Georgia to finally visit a primary care doctor regularly. It also covered weekly shots to manage an array of allergies, saving him more than $1,700 a year in out-of-pocket costs, he said. Gov. Brian Kemp pursued Pathways as an alternative to full Medicaid expansion, which 40 other states and Washington, D.C., adopted as part of the Affordable Care Act to make more low-income people eligible for healthcare coverage. Launched in 2023, Georgia’s program currently provides health coverage through Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program, to more than 20,000 people. It requires those enrolled to prove they’re working or doing other qualifying activities such as workforce training or community service — and it served, in part, as a model for the Medicaid work requirements that will roll out across most of the country starting Jan. 1. Now Pathways, one of Kemp’s main health policy initiatives, is slated to expire at the end of the year unless it’s renewed....