North Gwinnett News

U.S. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock urged Georgia leaders to expand Medicaid to help reach those who need it most. 

He spoke out after a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing. Providing health care would enable people to work, Warnock said in an interview posted on Twitter with Ai-Jen Poo, executive director of National Domestic Workers Alliance.

"This week’s @SenateAging hearing reaffirmed just how important Medicaid expansion is to our older Georgians, as well as home health care workers. I’m urging Georgia state leaders to take the necessary steps to implement this commonsense measure," Warnock said in the Twitter post.  

Research cites that closing the Medicaid coverage gap would help to narrow racial disparities, Portside reported. Those who are in the coverage gap that would be effected by the change include essential workers, parents caring for children and vary in race and ethnicity, the article said.

This gap would impact 2.2 million uninsured people whose incomes are below the poverty line, Portside reported. For those adults in the coverage gap that have incomes or will have incomes in the poverty live, they don't yet qualify for Medicaid under state rules. These individuals often have incomes that are too low to qualify for subsidized health insurance coverage in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

Across the 12 non-expansion states, which include Georgia, those affected by the gap was split almost evenly among women and men and they ranged in ages from 19 to 64, Portside reported.