Georgia legislation Proposes Steps to Improve Rural Health Care, Omits Major Coverage Solution

State lawmakers introduced several bills this year aiming to improve access to health care in rural Georgia. Six rural Georgia hospitals closed since 2013 and the state’s high rate of uninsured means many people in rural communities lack health coverage. The House Rural Development Council, created in 2017 to study the problem, traveled across the state last year find out how rural communities are coping with insufficient broadband connectivity, economic development, health care and other deficiencies. The council’s findings conspicuously omit one big obvious solution, accepting billions of dollars through Medicaid expansion to close the state’s health insurance coverage gap. Still, House Bill 769includes several of the council’s recommendations worth trying to get a handle on Georgia’s health care. The wide-ranging bill proposes a mix of tactics designed to ease the rural health system crisis.