Georgia Medicare Recipients Will See Major Change in November

Georgia Medicare beneficiaries will see some changes beginning in November as the state overhauls its health insurance marketplace.
Currently, Georgia maintains its health insurance marketplace on HealthCare.gov but will soon implement a state-run platform called Georgia Access. The state announced the change this week, saying the new Georgia Access marketplace would go live on November 1 to coincide with the 2025 open enrollment period.
“This milestone is the result of the extraordinary work our office has conducted over the past three years to move Georgia away from reliance on the federal government for health coverage,” Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John F. King said in a statement.
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“The Georgia Access approach is an innovative one. It will be the first State-based Exchange to partner with private sector companies to get consumers enrolled. It represents our commitment to expand access to affordable, quality health coverage and reduce the number of uninsured Georgians.”
The new marketplace will allow Georgia residents to search and enroll in health coverage plans, with different agents and insurers listed on the platform.
“This is a great milestone in connecting Georgians with the coverage they need,” Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement. “A state-based exchange will not only make the process for Georgians getting covered easier, but will also increase their coverage options and our ability to promote quality and affordable health plans.”
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Kemp said creating Georgia Access has been a “top priority” of his administration. He signed the Patients First Act in 2019, which began the process to get the new state-operated marketplace launched. Under that law, Georgia was permitted to submit a waiver to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to create “innovative solutions” to healthcare problems in the state.
In 2019, Georgia saw more than 1.3 million residents without health insurance, and 118 counties were limited to a single carrier for coverage options, according to the Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire.
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Georgia submitted the waiver on November 1, 2020, and the state got approval for a reinsurance program to reduce premiums and the shift from the HealthCare.Gov portal to Georgia Access. Under Georgia Access, more residents are likely going to sign up for health insurance than under the current system, and the competing insurers could improve health insurance options for Georgians.
Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, said changes to health insurance options are usually perceived as negative, but this one is more of a technical shift than anything else.
“In the past, Georgia residents have had to use Healthcare.gov for the portal to access provider options in their state,” Beene told Newsweek.
“This change will move those features to a new platform, Georgia Access, that will show residents all health insurance options available to them, including pricing. Ultimately, any type of marketplace is going to be valuable to health insurance recipients, including those on Medicare.”
The new marketplace could mean Georgians are able to find cheaper options since they’ll have all the health coverage plans easily laid out for them.
“It makes pricing easier to compare, as well as the difference in benefits between plans,” Beene said. “What can be a complicated process becomes less so for those shopping for options.”