Biden Administration Puts Georgia Medicaid Overhaul On Hold

Gov. Brian Kemp faces a renewed political battle over his plan to revamp Medicaid in Georgia after President Joe Biden’s administration put the proposal on hold a few months after it had won approval under Donald Trump.

Georgia officials got word from the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Friday that the status of Georgia’s plan had been shifted from “approved” to “pending.” Elizabeth Richter, the agency’s acting administrator, said in a letter that the plan’s eligibility requirement that recipients work or perform some related activity, such as attending college full-time, would be “unreasonably difficult or impossible” to meet during the coronavirus pandemic.

The move came less than a month after Biden took office and just four months after Kemp’s plan was approved by CMS under Trump’s administration. In a statement Monday, Kemp’s office accused Biden of attempting to “take away healthcare options for low-income Georgians hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.