Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
July 11, 2000, Tuesday, Home Edition
SECTION: Business; Pg. 3D
LENGTH: 401 words
HEADLINE:
Health insurance access subject of state hearings
BYLINE: Andy Miller, Staff
SOURCE: CONSTITUTION
BODY:
The state begins public hearings today on a thorny problem: the estimated
1.3 million Georgians who lack health insurance.
The
initiative, led by the Department of Community Health, aims to
reduce the number of uninsured. The hearings will help produce
recommendations for delivery to Gov. Roy Barnes by September. "What we're trying
to do is increase access to affordable health insurance," said Russ Toal, DCH
commissioner.
The DCH also is discussing the issue with business groups,
consumer advocates and the medical community.
Small businesses,
especially, have felt a squeeze from rising insurance premiums. Many small firms
recently have reported 30 percent to 60 percent increases in rates.
"The
vast majority of uninsured in this state work for small companies, and it's
becoming more and more difficult for them to buy insurance,'' Toal said.
About 19 percent of the state's population under age 65 have no health
coverage, more than the national average of 17 percent. Overall, more than 44
million Americans are uninsured, a figure that's growing steadily despite the
U.S. economic boom.
People without health insurance "tend to delay
treatment until they're sicker, so they're more expensive to treat," said Bill
Custer, a Georgia State University insurance professor. The uninsured then are
more likely to have a bad medical result, he added.
The cost of their
care is borne by local taxpayers and by those with private insurance, Custer
said. But this burden is not spread evenly The load falls disproportionately on
those who fund charity hospitals such as Grady Memorial Hospital, for example.
Without a mandate that everyone gets insurance, the approaches to the
problem will be piecemeal, Custer said.
The Georgia public hearings will
be in Atlanta, Gainesville, Thomasville, Statesboro and Carrollton, and in
Savannah at a DCH board meeting. Today's hearing is at the Georgia Center for
Advanced Telecommunications Technology, on the Georgia Tech campus.
One
proposal to increase health coverage, Toal said, is to expand Georgia's
PeachCare for Kids program, which currently extends insurance to children
without coverage. Under the proposal, the parents of those children would also
be eligible for insurance. Such a change would require approval by the federal
government.
About 85,000 children are enrolled in PeachCare, a program
that began January 1999.
LOAD-DATE: July 11, 2000
