Peachcare – Victim of Its Own Success?
by Emily Kopp

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Peachcare – Georgia's child health plan for working families – may be a victim of its own success. Booming enrollment is drying up funds. Congress says it will find more money. But lawmakers aren't promising when that will happen, and some fear the program will have to kick families off the rolls first.

Terri Benn has her hands full with her two-year-old daughter, Jasmine. Jasmine suffers from chronic ear infections. Her older brother, Jordan, is autistic. Benn says she used to struggle to pay for his health care. She took Jordan to the physician and had to pay $90.00. The prescription cost $140. She had to borrow money from her family to get it filled. She says she felt like a bad mom.

Then Benn learned about Peachcare two years ago. She's a private-school teacher in Jonesboro and earns about thirty thousand dollars. That's too much to qualify for Medicaid. But, she says, family health insurance through her school runs about $500 a month. Like many working parents, Benn says Peachcare is the only real option.

Benn's children are two of more than 270,000 on Peachcare rolls, and the system can't handle the load. State administrators are freezing enrollment March 11th to save money. That could leave 100,000 eligible children without health care. Even so, Medical Assistance Plan Chief Mark Trail says Peachcare could be in the red by April.

But time is running out. Lawmakers in Atlanta and Washington have been playing a game of chicken to see who will pay the Peachcare bill first. Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss notes Congress moves slowly. "While we want to make sure this gets done, we can't guarantee it gets done before Peachcare runs out of money."

Chambliss says the U.S. Senate could act this week, but he cautions state lawmakers to come up with a back-up plan. Meanwhile, State House Speaker Glenn Richardson doesn't want to save a federal program with state dollars. "It means Georgia would have to take money from elsewhere, where the federal government should pay. It's their program."

Richardson says Congress should find the emergency cash while state lawmakers try to contain long-term costs. He advocates shaving the highest-earning five percent of families off Peachcare rolls. A State Senate Task Force would prefer raising premiums rather than turn people away. Both proposals are likely to generate debate at the State Capitol. Georgia lawmakers have put aside other financial decisions while they wait for Congress to act on Peachcare.