The US Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, speaks at a hearing in the Senate at the beginning of this month. Warnock and several other legislators commission a report of the government responsibility that Georgia issued 54.2 million US dollars for the administration of the country’s only medical program with work requirements (photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images).
Georgia spent 54.2 million US dollars in less than five years in order to manage the country’s only Medicaid program with work requirements -more than twice as much as it was used to provide health care for participants An analysis Published at the beginning of this month of the state accountability.
The report suggests that it will be expensive that will be expensive for President Donald Trump, signed on July 4, who was signed on July 4.
According to this law, the 40 states plus of the District of Columbia, which has expanded Medicaid according to the law on affordable care, must request the expansion population-growing with low income under 65 years with up to 138% of the Federal League level level at least 80 hours a month or to participate in other activities such as vocational training.
The law is expected to be spending on Medicaid by federal doctors Estimated 911 billion US dollars In the next ten years, especially because the recent work requirements push people out of the roles. The recent rules will be effective on January 1, 2027.
Followers say that the work requirements encourage people to maintain jobs that offer health insurance. However, critics argue that most Medicaid recipients are already working and that most people who lose cover are dropped because they do not fulfill the reporting obligations.
In October 2020, Georgia received the approval of the federal government to test the requirements of the medical work requirements for a first period of 5 years. The program named Georgia Pathways to Coverage is available to people between the ages of 19 and 64 with income on or below the Federal League level that would otherwise not qualify for Medicaid. Georgia originally planned to start enrollment in July 2021, but the legal challenges delayed the implementation until July 2023.
By May 2025, Georgia reported that 7,463 people were registered, far less than the 25,000 that the state expected in the first year of the program.
Between 2021 and June 2025, according to the GAO, Georgia spent $ 54.2 million for administrative costs, compared to $ 26.1 million for medical care. Around 50.8 US dollars of the administrative spending stated that the state of the state stated in order to determine and register the authorization of people. In addition, the state used 20 million US dollars, which it received as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to advertise the program.
Gao’s officials informed Gao that the break in implementation forced them to do a few things twice and increases the administrative costs between 20% and 30%. This included IT system changes, coordination with other agencies and training the employees.
“Every state Medicaid program is different, and so the amount or the proportion of administrative costs that the states may have to update and implement the new work requirements can vary depending on the state,” said Michelle Rosenberg, director of GAO health care, in an interview.
“I suspect that some states may need fewer administrative expenses, and other states may need more. But I think these are the best information that we have available for the experiences of the states.”
The Georgia Department of Community Health, which monitors Georgia for reporting, did not respond to several stelting inquiries about comments.
The US Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia, one of the legislators who applied for the GAO report, said that he had the requirements of Medicaid’s work to waste tax money.
“This report shows that Pathways is incredibly effective in excluding workers from health reporting and making management consultants richer”, the Democrat said in a press release. “If Republican politicians were serious about getting people to work, they would have closed the reporting nationwide and cut off the government bureaucracy.”
Stateline reporter Shalina Chatlani can be reached schatlani@stateline.org
This story was originally produced by StatinsThe part of the States Newsroom is, a non -profit news network that includes West Virginia Watch and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a public charity 501c (3).
