Georgia health insurance

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status report:
Georgia state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated Georgia state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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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

how healthy is living in Georgia?

Georgia is ranked as the 36th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation, climbing seven spots from its ranking as 43rd healthiest in 2009.

The good news:

• The rate of violent crime has gone down; this year there were 426 offenses per 100,000 population, as opposed to 479 from last year.
• The percentage of Georgians smoking has decreased from 23.7 percent of the population to 17.6 percent.

The bad news:

• The rate of children in poverty (taken from members of the population under the age of 18) has increased from 19.9 to 23.3 percent.
• The prevalence of obesity in Georgia has climbed since 1990 from 10.8 percent to 27.7 percent.
• Georgia faces several challenges, including high incidence of infectious disease (24.5 cases per 100,000 of the population); high levels of air pollution; low high school graduation rates (64.1 percent of 9th graders finishing within their four years of high school), and a high rate of population without insurance (19.2 percent of the population is uninsured).

Georgia's best and worst category rankings:

• Poor mental health days – 7th
• Poor physical health days – 8th
• Prevalence of binge drinking – 9th
• High school graduation (64.1 percent) – 45th
• Air pollution – 46th
• Infectious disease – 47th

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.

how to find health insurance in Georgia

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in Georgia and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in Georgia.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's Georgia health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for Georgia.

Health insurance plan report cards for Georgia

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for Georgia health insurance plan report cards.

Georgia government health insurance resources

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.

Georgia State Insurance Commission – provides oversight of regulated industries, consumer protection, and broad-based educational activities.