As Donald Trump heads to Georgia tomorrow to sell his version of the economy, many families across the state are facing a very different reality. The numbers he cites on stage don’t reflect what people see when they open their mail and find another insurance premium hike or stand at the pharmacy counter calculating whether they can afford their medications. It’s whether their paycheck stretches far enough to cover rent, groceries, and health care.
Across Georgia, families and small business owners say health care costs are the pressure point threatening their financial stability. After Trump and Republicans ended the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, premiums skyrocketed for millions, including over 1.4 million Georgians, leaving hard-working families to absorb the fallout. At the same time, Republicans cut over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA, putting coverage at risk for millions of low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities, including nearly 150,000 Georgians.
Some Georgians are paying more for less coverage, others are postponing doctors visits or working extra hours to afford their premiums, and too many are going without insurance, hoping a medical crisis or accident doesn’t leave them in financial ruin.
Affordable Care Act
Teresa Acosta, Dunwoody
- “‘I had heard a lot of people saying, ‘Oh, it’s gonna double or triple premiums,’” said Acosta, a single mother of three. “No. Mine increased seven times over.’ Acosta, 49, got her January notice just days before Christmas, leaving her with $74 in her bank account. ‘It crushed me,’ she told MS NOW during an interview at her suburban home in Dunwoody, Georgia. ‘I mean, I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to pay for food for Christmas.’”
- “‘I’m afraid for my youngest’s access to the medication that he needs to live,’ said Acosta. ‘A Type 1 diabetic can’t live without insulin, and I’m afraid that if something happened to me, that he would not be able to manage, you know, a system that doesn’t value his life.’”
- “Now, her three teens are taking on extra jobs, and her eldest, Andie Stannard, is taking a break from college to help pay the bills. ‘I’m having to ask my children to help me do things that should only be my responsibility, and that has broken my heart,’ Acosta said. ‘They should concentrate on going to school, getting good grades, making friends — not paying a bill.’” [MS Now]
Sheri Barlow, Albany, Owns a Small Medical Business
- “She said losing the credits would make it even harder to keep the business afloat and recruit qualified staff. ‘When I looked at the letter, my heart just sank because it absolutely doubled,’ Barlow said after receiving a notice showing projected premiums for next year. ‘When your insurance premiums double for yourself and employees, and the rate is set for business with Medicare and Medicaid, where do you pull it from? Do you pull it from your children’s college funds?’” [WALB]
Barbara Brockway and Matt Padula
- “Now, their monthly premium has doubled to $3,200 — totaling nearly $39,000 a year for insurance alone. ‘We’ll definitely have to cut back just everyday expenses. Discretionary things like eating out, vacations,’ Brockway admits.”
- “The financial pinch has Padula second-guessing his retirement: ‘I’m wondering if I should not have stopped working last year, if I should have kept working.’” [CBS News]
Lindsay Corley, 40, Atlanta
- “The syndrome responds to treatments, including specialty drugs that Corley pays for with insurance she gets from the Affordable Care Act. ‘It’s the difference between having a quality of life and having no quality of life. I’d be spending my life on a couch.’ But she says the only way she can afford the insurance is with subsidies worth several hundred dollars a month.”
- “‘Will it mean I have to move back with my parents? Will I have to take less medication, and just be in a lot more pain? These are the things that go through your mind. I’m not sure people understand that.’” [The Bulwark]
Amy and Stephen Walker, Amy Walker Consulting
- “Stephen Walker, 50, had a stroke last year and even though he has recovered well, requires a lot of follow-up care. ‘It’s really not optional for us to not have health insurance,’ said Amy Walker, who is 45. To prepare financially for the higher costs, they cut subscriptions to streaming platforms, switched to cheaper car insurance, and started buying less on Amazon.com. Amy, who works 60 hours a week, hopes to earn more by spending more time on sales pitches for new clients.” [Wall Street Journal]
Brandi McGee Polatty, Jackson County
- “‘The new premium is $345.23, [up] from $124 a month,’ she told GPB soon after reviewing her plan.”
- “Polatty said she really likes her plan, even if her family will have to save more money to keep it. It’s got a low out-of-pocket expense, no annual deductible and it’s helped her get care from doctors she trusts for an immunodeficiency disorder, and a variety of expensive conditions that affect her brain. Not having health insurance isn’t an option for her family.” [GPB]
Clint Rauscher, Rideshare Driver
- “Rauscher said this year, his monthly net premium for insurance is just under $20. But next year, he is going to have to play over $225. ‘To see I have to pay this extra amount for health insurance, it’s just another blow,’ Rauscher said. ‘It’s like a car note.’ Rauscher said he will have to work an extra day or two as an Uber driver to pay the increase.” [WSB-TV]
Brady Reiter, Founder & CEO, Renegade Lemonade
- “Reiter is worried this will force him or his wife to return to their former jobs. ‘We left those to run this, and now we’re figuring if one of us has to go back to get insurance because I don’t know how we’d both be in this and pay a couple thousand dollars a month for insurance. It’s just not something we can do,’ he said.” [WSB-TV]
Jody Fieulleteau, 31, Atlanta
- “Fieulleteau said she rushed to schedule a surgery next week for a problem related to menstruation because she’s concerned about having insurance. ‘I’m feeling like I need to get everything done this year because I don’t know what next year is going to look like,’ she said in a phone interview.” [Washington Post]
Mary Campbell, Duluth
- “‘So, if I want the same plan, I will pay $1,100 more a month. Without subsidies, it’s going to be $2,379,’ she says. ‘If I want to keep my doctor, I have one option. And if I want my children to keep their pediatrician that they’ve had their entire lives, I have one insurance option.’”
- “‘I’m going to be purchasing what amounts to a catastrophic plan and paying the same amount of money. If I’m being completely honest, if I didn’t have children, I would very likely not purchase insurance.’ But the 52-year-old says she can’t take that risk. ‘I know all too well from having a son who had an experience where he was in the ICU for a week just four years ago,’ she says, ‘the bill before insurance was roughly $236,000.’” [WABE]
Steve, Atlanta
- “Steve […] pays for his parents’ health insurance through the ACA Marketplace.”
- “Going without coverage isn’t an option, he says. His parents are in their early Sixties. His dad recently completed treatment for cancer and needs regular scans to stay healthy and cancer-free.”
- “He’s planning to downgrade his parents to a bronze plan to keep them covered until they can qualify for Medicare. ‘But, of course, the deductible for this bronze plan that right now I have them set for is at like $8,000 versus $800 on the silvery plan,’ he says. ‘And hopefully their health doesn’t deteriorate, which you know it’s hard to tell since as you age, of course, you don’t know what else can happen.’” [WABE]
Medicaid
Jackie Reckson and her son Aaron
- “Reckson says the program would be unaffordable if she had to pay out of pocket, costing almost $20,000 annually.”
- “Reckson herself is facing a sharp spike in her health insurance premiums unless enhanced affordable care subsidies are reinstated, and she says the combination would be potentially disastrous.”
- “She said without the day program, Aaron would be left without his primary outlet to socialize and get out of the house, and the alternative of sitting at home all day would take a severe toll on his mental health.” [WABE]
Michelle Heyman and her son Eli
- “Spending cuts passed last summer by Congressional Republicans, including the steepest cuts in Medicaid in a generation, have the Heymans worried that more disruption is coming their way.”
- “‘Generally when we’ve had travails in the past, we have been able to figure out how to work around them and move on,’ said Heyman, a former health communication specialist. ‘Uncertainty is awful to live with on a day-to-day basis.’”
- “If the state cuts back funding for these services, his mother said, then Eli could end up in a hospital away from his loving family. ‘If we didn’t take him to therapy and to all these different activities that have events and all, then his world would be very small,’ she said.” [The Current]
Bruce Farout and his daughter Maria
- “Maria attends a day program and goes to church on Sundays — a structured schedule that provides stability and community engagement. But that structure depends on Medicare waiver funding, which Farout worries could be in jeopardy.”
- “Farout fears those federal reductions will trickle down to state waiver programs that provide critical services for people with disabilities. ‘Private pay is an extraordinarily expensive option for any of these things, but by and large, she’d be at home,’ he said. ‘These services are really critical for folks who need them.’”
- “He’s concerned about what would happen if that safety net disappeared — not just for Maria, but for thousands of others who depend on these programs. ‘Inclusion and living with people in community is key to her sustenance, her well-being, her mental and her physical health,’ Farout said. ‘This is their safety net.’” [11 Alive]
Carol Veschi, Atlanta
- “Carol Veschi, who relies on Medicaid to help care for her 18-year-old son with autism, is worried about how changes to the government program could affect her son.”
- “‘We’re all scared,’ metro Atlanta resident Veschi tells Axios.”
- “Without waivers, Veschi says, she would have to choose to either ‘institutionalize’ her son or her spouse, who is also disabled.” [Axios]