CREEDE HINSHAW: Georgia Medicaid policy neglects thousands in need

Is it a sin to turn a back on a neighbor you know who desperately needs to see a doctor? If so, is it a sin to turn a back on 500,000 Georgians without health care? Do Georgia people of faith even care?

It seems easy to rally against books in schools and libraries, to protest about transgender persons, and to support somebody who doesn’t want to bake a cupcake. Thousands upon thousands will sign petitions in a heartbeat.

But what about health care for uninsured Georgia men, women and children? Where are the cries of the Georgia faith community?

Georgia is one of only 10 states that refuses to accept Medicaid. Even Arkansas and North Carolina have enrolled in this program, which undergirds access to basic health care.

Instead, our state has rolled out (“lurched” would be a better word) something Gov. Brian Kemp calls Georgia Pathways to Coverage. In the first four months of this debacle, Georgia has enrolled less than 2,000 people. The program is incredibly unwieldy and even inaccessible in the most basic ways. According to Ariel Hart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an article headlined “Fearing Medicaid Loss, Many Seeking Answers Find Frustration,” there are 30 confusing categories of eligibility and the requirement of reams of unfathomable paperwork.

To qualify one must file monthly reports, work 80 hours per month or volunteer at a registered nonprofit.

Potential applicants find that phone calls are rarely answered and voice mailboxes are full. The state’s website often doesn’t work from a smartphone. A face-to-face visit requires finding transportation and then hoping that when one arrives the office is open; hours in reality do not jibe with hours posted on websites or even office doorways.

The Georgia Department of Human Services is woefully understaffed, and the labyrinthine, confusing hurdles almost ensure that an undereducated person, perhaps a caregiver to children, or somebody with a disability or chronic pain, or somebody who is disturbed mentally, will have no chance of qualifying for or applying successfully for this program. This is beyond shameful.

The health care issue is not nearly as easy to grasp as the ones cited in the second paragraph. (Most of those issues have been oversimplified and sensationalized to attract attention and raise money.) All of us are sons and daughters of God, and denial of basic health care — especially when it is within reach — should concern us all. Those who are the least able to help themselves must be supported.

Does the faith community care? Georgia could join 40 other states to receive Medicaid, which would support hundreds of thousands of uninsured Georgia men, women and children.

By all means, give aid to your next-door neighbor, but do not neglect the thousands in need. Contact your legislator and urge support of this basic human need. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is God’s word in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.