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.
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.
###