Chicken is for Fundraisers

Chicken is not a game that should be played with healthcare for Georgia's children. Yet, this is exactly what the Georgia GOP did- they opted to play a game of chicken with the federal government to see who would come up with the funds to fill the gap for PeachCare.

Today, they finally did what Rep. Jim Marshall and Rep. Nikki Randall proposed long ago- they borrowed the money to fill the gap from the Medicaid program. I guess when a Democrat proposes something, partisan politics trumps child welfare and the idea is dismissed by the Republican leadership. It is too bad that this crisis was allowed to bloom, and too bad that families were stressed not knowing whether or not they would be able to continue coverage.

The Republican spin on this issue has been that Congress left them holding the bag and that Congress must act to 'fix' PeachCare. The truth is that Congress did precisely what they had promised, but Georgia's high enrollment (a good thing) exceeded projections. Congress, due to reauthorize spending for the S-CHIP program this year, will ultimately reimburse the state for the money that is now being used to bridge the gap. The 'fix' that was needed, and proposed early on by Randall, was that Georgia law did not provide for the state to step in a provide funding for the program in a crisis like the one that exists now-even if those funds would later be reimbursed. And, remember, due the the surplus Sonny talked about during the campaign, we had PLENTY of money to get this done. It was never a question of 'could' we do it- it was a question of priorities and 'would' we do it.

Now, the Republican leadership, who refused to even give her bill a hearing, have essentially adopted the language of that legislation and made it their own. Fine. At least our children are finally protected, but never forget that this is not the solution the GOP leadership wanted in Georgia. They wanted to shave children from the PeachCare rolls. That was their solution. I suspect that they polled the issue and discovered that most Georgians disagreed with this ill-conceived plan. Whatever gets it done.

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