Georgia Health Insurance

How healthy is living
in Georgia?

Georgia is 36th healthiest state to live in according to the 2012 America's Health Rankings® from the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• For the third year in a row, Georgia's overall health ranking has improved.
• More than 93 percent of young children have received recommended vaccinations.
• The high school graduation rate, while still low, has increased by 6.5 percentage points in the past four years.

The bad news:

• Fewer Georgians have health insurance. The uninsured rate rose from 15.0 percent to 19.3 percent over the past 10 years.
• Infant mortality, while declining, remains high at 7.7 deaths per 1,000 births.

Georgia's best and worst category rankings:

• Immunization Coverage – 4th
• Binge Drinking – 14th
• Occupational Fatalities – 15th
• Infant Mortality – 44th
• High School Graduation – 45th
• Geographic Disparity – 46th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Georgia.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Georgia health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Georgia here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Georgia, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

Does Georgia have a health insurance high risk pool?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Georgia started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Georgia's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

Non-profit sources of health insurance information for Georgia

• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's mission is to provide simplified public and private health insurance eligibility information in order to help more people access coverage. Here is its guide on how to find health insurance in Georgia.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is tracking the progress of health insurance reform in each state. Its page for Georgia can be found here.
• The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers. Search for Georgia health insurance plan report cards.

Georgia state government health insurance resources

Health care reform in Georgia —  How the State of Georgia will implement provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Georgia Insurance Commissoner —  The Georgia Department of Insurance is responsible for regulating all types of insurance sold in the Georgia – including health insurance policies.

Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) —  The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) was created in 1999 to serve as the lead agency for health care planning and purchasing issues in Georgia.

PeachCare for Kids —  A Children’s Health Insurance Program to expand coverage to children in low income families. It is not a Medicaid plan. The plan will pay for preventive services and acute medical care, as well as vision and dental care.

How did Georgia officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Yes (8)

• Paul Broun
• John Gingrey
• Tom Graves
• Jack Kingston

• Tom Price
• Austin Scott
• Lynn Westmoreland
• Rob Woodall

Our
Pick

No (5)

• John Barrow
• Sanford Bishop
• Henry Johnson
• John Lewis

• David Scott