As Georgia’s state government prepared to go into hibernation for Winter Storm Pax, State House Leadership in the form of Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, Speaker David Ralston, Majority Leader Larry O’Neal and others dropped House Bill 990, which mandates that any expansion of Medicaid eligibility be acted upon by the state legislature.
While distracted with other responsibilities, Governor Nathan Deal told media that, “I’m fine with that, yeah….”
“Thirty-five percent of voters favor expanding benefits to more people, but nearly 50% oppose such a move. And ironically, only 31% of Democrats who responded to the poll favor an expansion of Medicaid as required by the law.”
An earlier poll by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found differently on the question of expanding Medicaid eligibility.
Fifty-seven percent of Georgians support the expansion, however, while 39 percent oppose it, according to the statewide poll conducted for the AJC by Abt SRBI. Almost nine in 10 Democrats supported the move versus just 25 percent of Republicans. Support for the expansion was strongest among poll respondents in metro Atlanta (69 percent in favor); people who earn less than $50,000 a year (71 percent); and those in the 18-39 age group (62 percent).
I believe that the difference in support results from a difference in the way the questions were worded. The AJC question on expanding Medicaid stated that the federal government would pay 100% of the cost of expanding Medicaid the first few years and 90% thereafter, while I don’t believe that the InsiderAdvantage question included such language.
Of course, Governor Deal has famously remarked that this promise comes from the same folks who promised that ,“if you like your health insurance, you can keep it.”
And the breakdown by party identification shows the difference, with 87% of Democrats favoring expansion of Medicaid, while only 25% of Republicans do. But intriguingly, self-identified Independents favor the expansion by 58% for and 38% against.
At the end of the day, the question of Medicaid expansion in Georgia is probably more about political constituencies, rather than governance policy. Ultimately, Jason Carter’s campaign is pulling a page from the traditional Democratic playbook – use the promise of Other Peoples’ Money to try to buy votes from the political center. This is less about actual governance policy than it is about electoral politics.
