Kemp spent $31 Million to block Affordable Care Act in Georgia

Just over 700,000 Georgians purchased plans for 2022 coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplace exchange, but if Gov. Brian Kemp had his wish, the ACA would go away. In its ongoing effort to stop Georgians from being able to shop for healthcare on the federal healthcare website, the state has said it spent $31 million on Kemp’s proposal to block ACA.

Kemp’s proposal would essentially block Georgians from shopping on healthcare.gov and instead direct Georgia shoppers to contact information for private insurance companies and brokers to get help. Kemp is promoting the usage of private companies instead and argues that Georgians will find it easier to shop for insurance from them because they are more motivated to be consumer-friendly.

Opponents of private companies say these companies actually put their own profits over the need to fully explain all options to consumers. They also point to consumers already having the ability to shop for insurance from private companies, and choosing not to do so. On healthcare.gov, unlike individual companies’ sites, a shopper sees all eligible plans placed together so they can compare them.

Betting that people won’t give up on shopping for insurance entirely, Laura Colbert, director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, an organization that supports the ACA and Medicaid expansion said, “Governor Kemp’s plan to shut down the most popular enrollment pathway for Georgians buying their own health insurance is a gamble.” 

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Kemp’s office suggested that the Biden administration was attempting to overturn the Trump administration’s approval of the Georgia “waiver” plan. The letter said that rescinding the previous administration’s approval would not only be illegal, it would also make a waste of that $31 million investment.

The “waiver” proposal Kemp references were drawn up by Kemp aides working with officials in the Trump administration and would block Georgians from shopping on healthcare.gov. Two days before the 2020 election, the waiver was approved by the Trump administration. The waiver’s implementation was left to the incoming Biden administration. Trump aides changed its standard contract to make it harder for any future administration to revoke the waiver.

This is the latest in the war of words between the Kemp administration and the Biden administration over Kemp’s health care waiver proposals that many says may end up before the supreme court. Instead of providing a “corrective action plan” as Washington had demanded, Kemp pushed back saying Washington was just trying to stop the proposal. The plan the feds requested “simply asked that Georgia better detail its ‘outreach and communications plan, including planned funding, a spending plan, and additional information on engagement with underserved communities. Georgia refused to do that and countered in their letter that the Biden administration had asked for data that would be impossible to produce within the time frame it demanded.


Opponents of Kemp’s proposal point to research that shows that both private companies and private insurance agencies try first and foremost to make the biggest profit they can and that studies show a history of selling consumers plans that don’t meet their needs the best.

Supporters of the waiver plan said it would produce more options for Georgians. Chris Denson, director of policy and research at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, a libertarian-leaning think tank said “The state received approval from (the federal government in 2020) to proceed with the implementation,” and the Biden administration has no authority to undo that, Denson said.
Grant Thomas, Kemp’s director of health strategy and coordination signed the letter but did not specify what the $31 million had been spent on.

Some point to the reference of Kemp having spent $31 million and ‘thousands of hours of staff time on the planning and implementation of his signature health care policy saying “surely the state has these plans in place already and the plans would be easy to share.” When Andrew Isenhour, a spokesman for Kemp, was asked, he also did not list out expenditures. Instead, he said the money included both state and federal dollars, and was spent on “technical system needs and digital architecture services, consulting and project management services, a public awareness campaign, and general program consulting support.”

Many we spoke to say that there are a number of issues to address in our state including inflation, crime, affordable housing, and a laundry list of other issues. With all that our state is facing, is blocking citizens’ access to the ACA what should be at the top of the list for Georgia?