How health insurance cuts could affect Georgia’s rural hospitals and midterm elections

Hundreds of thousands of Georgians have been left without health insurance coverage after the expiration of enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.

Rural hospitals are struggling to survive, according to reporting from KFF Health News.

Roughly 74,000 residents in Georgia’s 14th District relied on those subsidies and premiums have surged since they lapsed.

Monty Veazey is the president and CEO of the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals. He said the cuts have been devastating.

“As of March 31, 328,000 Georgians had dropped their coverage. That was a hit of $451 million to Georgia hospitals. I would say today that number has doubled,” he said.

Veazey said more than half a million Georgians have dropped their health insurance causing hospitals to see more uninsured patients in emergency rooms and increasing risks to rural hospitals that remain.

However, many voters in the district remain loyal to President Donald Trump.

Charles Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, is tracking the potential impacts of healthcare cuts on the midterm elections.

“For MAGA voters who are firmly committed to Donald Trump and believe whatever he says, it probably doesn’t have much effect,” he said. “For those who may be Republicans but are not in the MAGA world, those are the kinds of individuals who might then change the party for which they have voted in the past.”

Bullock said these issues impact rural communities differently because when a hospital closes, residents may have to drive more than 40 miles away for emergency care. 

He said Georgia’s partial expansion of Medicaid and health policies of Robert Kennedy Jr. pose potential liabilities for the Republican Party.