Starting in November, Georgia residents on Medicare can expect big changes to their health insurance options. This is because the state is moving from the federal HealthCare.gov platform to a state-run marketplace called Georgia Access. In line with the upcoming open registration period in 2025, this change will completely change how health insurance is managed in the state.
The new Georgia Access marketplace, which will open on November 1, has been built over the past three years as part of a larger plan to make Georgia less dependent on government health insurance programs.
Georgia’s Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, John F. King, emphasized how important this change was by saying, “This milestone is the result of the extraordinary work our office has done over the past three years to move Georgia away from relying on the federal government for health coverage.”
He said that the Georgia Access program was “innovative” because it was the first state-based market to work with private companies to help people sign up. King said that this move shows that the state is serious about making more people in Georgia eligible for affordable, high-quality health insurance and lowering the number of people who don’t have insurance.
By making the Georgia Access marketplace available, the government hopes to make it easier for people in the state to find and sign up for health insurance plans. The platform will have a lot of different agents and insurers, giving users a full picture of all their choices.
Governor Brian Kemp also talked about how important this change is for getting Georgians the health insurance they need. “A state-based exchange will not only make it easier for Georgians to get coverage, but it will also give them more options for coverage and help us promote quality, affordable health plans,” he said.
Benefits of the new Georgia Access platform for Medicare users
Kemp has said that creating Georgia Access will be one of the most important things he does as governor. The process began in 2019 when the Patients First Act was signed into law. This law made it possible for the new state-run marketplace to be set up.
This law let Georgia ask the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for a waiver so they could come up with new healthcare solutions that fit the needs of the state.
More than 1.3 million Georgians did not have health insurance when the Patients First Act was passed, and 118 of the state’s counties had only one insurance company to choose from, according to figures from the Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire. This lack of choices made it clear that change was needed.
Georgia filed the waiver on November 1, 2020, and it was later approved. This meant that the state could start a reinsurance program that would lower premiums and make the switch from the federal HealthCare.gov system to the Georgia Access platform easier.
The government of Georgia hopes that Georgia Access will get more people to sign up for health insurance. This could make insurers compete with each other, giving Georgians more and better choices.
Experts like Alex Beene, who teaches financial skills at the University of Tennessee at Martin, agree with this view. Beene said that people are usually skeptical of changes to health insurance choices, but that the switch to Georgia Access is mostly just a technical change and not a big change to coverage.
“In the past, Georgia residents had to use Healthcare.gov as the portal to see the providers in their state,” he said. With this change, those features will be moved to a new platform called Georgia Access. This platform will show Georgians all of their health insurance choices, along with prices.
The new marketplace could make it easier for people in Georgia on Medicare and others to compare health insurance plans, which could be a real advantage. The app shows the prices and benefits of different plans next to each other, making the process of choosing coverage easier than it usually is.
As for the possible benefits of the new system, Beene said, “It makes it easier to compare prices and the differences in benefits between plans.” Some people find it easier to go through a process that can be hard for others.