Missouri Republicans are trying to avoid funding an expansion that would give 275,000 people health insurance. Democrats argue they are pushing ideology over the will of the people.

The Biden administration has shaken up the health care arithmetic nationally, and that could reverberate here in Georgia. For one thing, the incentives for a state to expand Medicaid have become much more enticing.

The Trump administration has given states ways to restrict spending on the government insurance program for low-income Americans. A Biden administration would expand Medicaid coverage.

Georgia slipped to No. 46 among the states in a new ranking of health system performance, down from 42nd the previous year.

The new 2020 Commonwealth Fund report on states’ health system performance, released Friday, noted that Georgia performed well by certain measures.

Missouri is the second state to expand the health care program via ballot measure during the pandemic. Nearly a quarter-million people could get health insurance thanks to the measure.

Advocates for expansion say it would create jobs, protect hospitals from budget cuts, bring billions of federal taxpayer dollars back to the state, and bring health coverage to 230,000 more people.