How will Georgia manage changes to SNAP and Medicaid rules? State leaders are figuring it out 

Caption

U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill is signed on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 3, 2025.

Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

More than 3 million people in Georgia participate in Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  

All of those programs will face historic cuts following the passage of President Donald Trumps “Big Beautiful Bill.” Estimates suggest Georgia could lose $7 billion in federal Medicaid funding and $8 billion for SNAP over the next decade. 

State lawmakers face a choice:  Use their own budgets to fill in losses from the federal government, or cut programs because there isn’t money to fund them.

Most cuts to the federal cost share for Medicaid and SNAP won't go into effect until after the 2026 midterm elections. But some provisions in the reconciliation bill technically went into effect when it was signed, such as an expansion of who has to fulfill monthly work requirements for food assistance and restrictions on provider taxes for Medicaid.  

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It’s not clear how those changes will roll out in Georgia yet.  

“Most of the things don't go into effect for a few years. So we have some time to look at that,” said John Hallman, deputy commissioner at the Georgia Department of Human Services at a July 9 board meeting.  

In response to questions from board members about the new changes, Hallman said the agency, which oversees the Division of Family and Child Services (DFCS), is working closely with Georgia’s Department of Community Health, which oversees the state's Medicaid programs, to plan for changes from the reconciliation bill.  

DCH spokesperson Fiona Roberts said the agency is “still reviewing the federal reconciliation bill and its impact to Georgia,” and that staff plan to “inform our Board of those changes at a later date.”  

Local health policy analysts say federal guidance has been slim.  

“State governments don't operate like a light switch, right, and can automatically kind of change policy immediately,” said Ife Finch Floyd of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. 

Beneficiaries of SNAP could start having conversations about program changes during periodic reviews of eligibility.  

“It’s really at those points in time where people are informed that they might be subject to these new and expanded work requirements,” Finch Floyd said. “But in short, we don't have much more details about immediate implementation beyond that.” 

Meanwhile, social service providers in Georgia are still trying to catch up on backlogs in applications after an overwhelming couple of years.

Where did the backlog come from? 

In 2020, offices where caseworkers processed applications for SNAP and Medicaid every month all closed, jobs turned virtual and many caseworkers quit. Because of the burden COVID-19 placed on families, federal policy prevented states from assessing the eligibility of anyone getting health care and food assistance.  

Then, when the public health emergency ended, an influx of applications from new and existing social service recipients overwhelmed the system. The period of "unwinding" also saw people lose their benefits because of administrative errors. 

The Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) fell behind. In its budget this year, the state Senate asked the Georgia DHS for a plan on how it would address thousands of pending eligibility determinations for Medicaid and SNAP.  

A backlog plan submitted by Georgia DHS at the start of June shows that at the peak of its backlog in 2023, 150,000 people were waiting on Medicaid applications and 80,000 were waiting on SNAP. 

“States really had to deal with a higher level of workload with even fewer staff than before, and they were understaffed to begin with,” said Jennifer Wagner, director of Medicaid eligibility and enrollment at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “Georgia is an example of a state that struggled a lot.” 

Benefit recipients also struggled as a result. Many likely skipped meals, Wagner said, or didn’t get checkups or their prescription medications, because they couldn’t afford it during the waiting period.  

The state has since improved. 

At the end of May, 55,700 people had pending Medical Assistance applications — which include Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids — and 33,200 had pending SNAP applications.  

Yet, thousands of applications for Medicaid and SNAP are still processed outside of what the state considers “standard of promptness,” or up to seven days from when caseworkers receive an application.  

For example, about 45% of Medicaid applications in May have been pending for over two months. That’s much smaller for SNAP, with less than 10% of applications outside of the standard response time.  

“In most states, it's not as severe as it was,” Wagner said. “But if you look at it, 10% of applications taking more than the deadline, that means SNAP people are waiting more than seven days in emergency situations, or 30 days for others.” 

DHS said there are lots of reasons why an application can be open for a long amount of time, such as if new information requires the agency to reconsider an eligibility determination and therefore reopen a case. In its plan, the agency said its current workforce has also been unable to meet the backlog of applications for Aged, Blind and Disabled Medicaid, which represents the largest outstanding workload. 

What happens next  

Some Georgians who rely on SNAP and Medicaid could see a reduction or change in their benefits as soon as this year, specifically seniors, unhoused people, veterans and some legal immigrants affected by revisions to eligibility in the reconciliation bill.  

The work requirement expansion for SNAP could mean more paperwork for state employees.  

In its plan, Georgia DHS notes that at current staffing levels the agency can return to “timely processing” of applications by the end of the year.  

But, the plan reads, additional investments from the state for more caseworkers would “increase our capacity, improve customer service, and support more accurate eligibility determination.” Especially considering any emergency, like a hurricane or other natural disaster, could upend its current workforce capacity.

Finch Floyd from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute said maintained investment in caseworkers is critical. The state approved a $3,000 pay increase for caseworkers in the 2025 budget bringing up what were historically low salaries. 

“We really don't want to go back to even pre-pandemic levels or lower levels of staffing and pay that's not keeping up with inflation,” Finch Floyd said.  

Automation elsewhere would help as well, DHS said in the backlog plan.  

Already, many services on Georgia’s social service platform Gateway have been automated to help process applications faster. Bots automatically review SNAP and Medicaid applications before they get to a case worker, for example, and the state is piloting additional artificial intelligence capabilities caseworkers can access on their computers.  

With federal approval, DHS would like to give AI-powered agents a try, too.