Proposed for Georgia – Vote No
Rep. Jason Spencer Responds to Georgia Chamber’s Medicaid
Expansion Proposals
ATLANTA— State Representative Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine)
today issued the following statement in response to the healthcare expansion
proposals released by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce:
“The Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s healthcare expansion
plans are recycled proposals from the state of Arkansas’ Arkansas Works
proposal. Arkansas Works, which was previously referred to as the “private
option,” was recently authorized during Arkansas’ 2016 special legislative
session.
“The Georgia Chamber’s slide presentation does not include
any specifics, with the exception of the federal poverty levels. The reference
to these levels is a dead giveaway that the Georgia Chamber is recycling the
Arkansas Works model. There is no originality in the policy proposals,
and anyone who pays close attention to this issue knows this.
“Therefore, the ‘Georgia Works’ version and its ‘Georgia
private option,’ as borrowed by the Georgia Chamber, will put our state’s most
needy at risk by diverting needed state dollars away from these medically frail
patients. In addition, these policies only serve to subsidize hospitals that
have either been financially mismanaged or cannot survive in this hostile
healthcare reimbursement climate. This climate is worsened by a synergistic
effect of converging poor federal healthcare (Obamacare) and state healthcare
policies (Georgia’s Certificate of Need program). These plans are not fiscally
sound solutions. They are simply the same tired government redistributionist
policies that are characteristic of a Keynesian utopia.
“These Georgia Chamber policies, if adopted, will do lasting
damage to our state’s taxpayers and the enrollees themselves by trapping them
in a new welfare program.
Georgia's existing Medicaid program is under a great deal of
stress. Through our state’s Medicaid program, taxpayers already finance 60
percent of all births in Georgia. Are we aiming for 100 percent?
These Georgia Chamber sponsored welfare enhancement plans
will artificially increase demands for medical services, while the suppliers of
these services will not be able to satisfy this illusion.
Healthcare prices are already inflationary, and the Georgia
Chamber’s policies will only exacerbate this problem, while making some feel
good about ‘doing something.’ This is the worst kind of social and economic
engineering I have seen.
The ‘Georgia Works’ version not only expands social welfare,
but also creates corporate welfare for businesses. These hybrid
social/corporate welfare healthcare policies only bring us closer to a single
payer system, and we all know how that will end.
“Furthermore, the ‘Georgia Works’ version the Chamber
unveiled gives Medicaid to people who already have health insurance, but they
will not tell you that. This new class of able-bodied adults who already
have private insurance will be able to keep their existing insurance, but
simply shift the costs of their premiums and out-of-pocket expenses to
taxpayers.
“As the old saying goes in Ecclesiastes 1:9, ‘What has been
will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new
under the sun.’”
The Georgia Quality Healthcare Access Task Force, created by
the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, released a report outlining ways Georgia could
expand healthcare coverage on Wednesday, August 31, 2016.
Source: Representative Jason Spencer represents the citizens
of District 180, which includes Camden, Charlton, and Ware counties. He was
elected into the House of Representatives in 2010, and currently serves as the
Secretary of the Special Rules Committee. He also serves on the Game Fish
& Parks, Human Relations & Aging, and Juvenile Justice committees.
Comments
I agree
with Jason Spencer that this plan should not be adopted. Obamacare is unraveling and Medicaid dollars
need to be spent sparingly.
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